honey, im home!! i brought dinner and a child! ..and dinner!!

Foraging was something Aurelle and Lichen often did; they needed to eat, they needed materials to repair the ruin they'd holed up in, different amenities that made life comfortable for Aurelle. So, as far as days went, this one was no different to the others.

What was different was the suspicious shuffling around when Lichen had returned. She scuffled close to the walls, not announcing her presence to her fellow blind roommate beyond the scuffing of her feet across the floor -- which was lop-sided as the dragon clutched something to her chest. Making the tripedal movements loud and clumsy.

She hung close to the walls of the old ruin, trying to find her way into the room she and Aurelle slept in. Unawares of Aurelle's whereabouts and if she'd even made it home yet; not that she could see if Aurelle was there.

Once Lichen felt the air change (it was much less open to the elements in their sleeping room, thanks to the blankets that covered the major holes) she finally stooped down low to where their shared nest was; lowering her find into the soft things they'd piled up.

This find happened to be a gemstone; one of black opal.

Without waiting further, she began shuffling through the pile of soft things, digging a divot into the pile between the junction where two walls met and the pile touched. With the makeshift nest built, she lowered the gem inside.

Aurelle wouldn't mind, surely. Lichen would explain everything and Aurelle would do what she usually did, which was smile, nod and say something supportive. At least, that's what Lichen told herself as she leaned into the soft-thing hole she'd made to hold the gemstone.

Lichen sighed, she hoped they'd both at least be on the same page about not letting a defenceless gemstone roll around the caves. Surely?

The spell made the back of her eyes tickle and itch; Lichen had never done it before, but surely, it would be easy. It was the simple act of giving life, how hard could it be?

It had been another merry day of being childless.

During her daily bout of foraging, Aurelle had picked up a few fresh fruits and mushrooms (being careful not to sever the entire supply, of course) and the harvest was quite good for the day. If Lichen had gotten some stuff, too, they'd just about have a right feast, which was great because the winter had been quite rough with little growth at all.

She could barely contain it all in her arms as she practically skipped back home, slipping through the doorway. "Lichen!" She called-- because it was very difficult to know if someone was there or not without eyes or magic. "I've got so much food for us. We might not even have to go outside tomorrow."

Dimly, the elf could hear claws scrabbling into the ground as she packed the food into a blanket and wrapped it up. It didn't slow the rot or anything, but it did stop it from getting... as gross as it would have completely bare to the elements. She lifted her head with a quizzical frown at the noises Lichen was making.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Lichen whipped around, albeit a little too fast after casting as spell, and almost found herself tail over head as she staggers to right herself. "Aurelle!" She called, sounding a little too enthusiastic, a little too excited, that bordered on sounding disingenuous.

Drat. Aurelle was early.

Lichen hadn't even thought of an excuse yet.

Crap.

In her panic she'd shuffled over the hole she'd made and placed the gem into. "Oh! You brought so much food!" She praised, desperately trying to buy time for her brain to pick up the slack to think of what to say. Yet, all it had to offer was spat obscenities.

"Well, that's lovely-- We--" Lichen winced, all her words sounded fake even to her own ears 'that's lovely', when had she ever said that? Well, maybe once or twice, but never with that much enthusiasm. She doubted she'd ever said anything with enthusiasm.

"I found a stone." Lichen blurts out without any tact a beat later. Her face pulling into a almost-smile almost-grimace, not that either of them could see that.

It was a terrible thing to think, and Aurelle wished she'd never thought of it at all-- but she, too, wondered, Lichen doesn't usually sound so happy. In all her time knowing her, Lichen had usually been flat, cautious, and on some occasions, a little possessive. Enthusiasm wasn't a Lichen-based emotion. Either she was having a really good day, or she was hiding something.

Aurelle didn't want to think Lichen was hiding something.

A moment later, Lichen answered her unspoken question. For a moment, the dilapidated home was silent before Aurelle asked, quizzically, "a stone?"

It had not, for the record, ever occurred to Aurelle that people left behind their stones when they died. She rarely partook in hunting or eating meat, and only generally knew that Lessers were reduced to oil sometimes after they died. So, all Aurelle heard was that Lichen found a rock she liked and was particularly happy about it.

Which, well, also wasn't very Lichen-like behaviour, considering she couldn't see.

But, Aurelle wasn't going to be rude. "What kind of stone?" She asked, smiling softly as she turned and reached out for Lichen, her hands near the dragon's snout.

Lichen's feelers reached for the hand near her nose, treacherous things. It was all she could do but close her eyes and try to come to terms with her fate; as if Aurelle would do anything nearly so dramatic. "A big one. Bigger than the fish or--"

With a hefty sigh, she uses her nose to attempt to nudge Aurelle across their makeshift nest, towards the corner where she'd proceeded to nestle the stone into. "I think-- Someone was hurt, or.. died. But, it didn't turn into that ick. So, I er..."

Lichen let the rest of the sentence speak for itself, hoping that Aurelle would find the stone and put the rest together herself. "You weren't here, so I tried to help-- Do you think it's okay?" The dragon finally relented, her body language drooping.

Aurelle was supposed to be the soft, caring one. The one that went out of her way to help people, not Lichen. She was supposed to be stoic, indifferent, nothing like Aurelle. She supposed that perhaps Aurelle had rubbed off on her more than she thought, at least enough to make foolish impulsive choices in panic. Lichen never had the sort of strength Aurelle had, to put herself out there, to be soft and kind.

"Is it okay now?" Lichen asked, her voice much quieter at the admission. Whatever Aurelle's reaction would be, she'd take it on the chin, she promised herself. "You know best."

Her hand moved over Lichen's snout briefly before the dragon nudged her towards the chrysalis. She'd felt dead stones in her hands before; they were like ice, cold and lifeless. She was surprised when she reached out, fingers smoothing against the face of the black opal, to find that it was warm, almost hot. Chrysalises she'd touched before weren't usually so warm-- maybe whatever Lichen had done to it had made it that way for a little while.

"Oh, Lichen," she sighed softly. She wasn't angry or disappointed per se, but whatever the feeling was settling in Aurelle's gut, it wasn't something she knew how to put into a word. Dead things were supposed to stay dead, weren't they? It had never crossed her mind that there could be magics that brought people back. "I don't know."

And she really didn't. Things that tumbled out of their chrysalises were new, infants, and didn't know much. Would this one remember anything of its life? Would it remember how it died? Would it... wish it'd stayed that way?

Aurelle couldn't fault Lichen for wanting to help, but the thought that she may have accidentally brought someone back who would rather stay dead made her belly turn uncomfortably. All the same, one hand brushed over Lichen's crest while the other remained on the warm stone.

"I really don't know," she repeated softly after a few moments. "I suppose we can... wait and see." The lack of an immediate joke or humour in her tone as she said 'wait and see' signalled that this was a dire situation, indeed.

The dragon exhaled a gentle sigh, but felt no relief from it. Aurelle had a habit of making her chest feel tense, but it wasn't usually like this. It felt like a dull ache over her heart, and no amount of deep breaths made it go away. The muscles under her eyes worked to narrow her eyes towards the stone, despite not being able to see.

Lichen wasn't that stupid. She knew she'd done something wrong.

"Okay." She answered quietly, her throat felt too tight to say much more than that.

By all that is good, why couldn't she leave well enough alone? She'd been good at it for the last hundred cycles, and now she couldn't seem to stop putting her nose in everything. Her crest had raised, her upset very evident; she'd never felt the need to hide how she felt, she couldn't see how she looked when she did.

"We'll wait and see." Lichen managed to squeeze out, before she flopped down by the forming chrysalis. As is waiting for it would tell her everything she needed to know.

It didn't.

She was going to have to work hard to make this up to Aurelle; and to the newly forming gembound. But, right now, she was exhausted.

She could tell Lichen was upset by her answer. Aurelle wasn't entirely certain how to feel or act, either, in fairness-- but as Lichen pulled away, she felt the urge to smother, to comfort, to say something to fix everything. There was a little part of her that knew it'd just make Lichen feel worse, though.

She offered Lichen a half-smile, the gesture purely instinctual considering neither of them could see, and she left Lichen be. It wasn't like Aurelle would be very far-- but once Lichen was feeling a little less sad, she knew that the dragon would come back to her.

For now...

The elf headed to the stash of fruits she'd picked up earlier that day, only disturbing Lichen's quiet time briefly with a little bit of food placed near the dragon's nose so she could find it and eat it when she wanted. She could tell she was tired, so she left her be.

It'd be alright, anyway. What was the worst that could happen, after all..?