The lights had started flickering; the usual, cool white light that bathed Canis was now a dim fluttering yellow. The Lorekeeper was leaned up against the West Wall, a source of comfort for her. It was where she'd made her home ever since emerging from the chrysalis beneath the bone pile. She had been happy to mind her own business, until a few of the Gembounds wandering the caves began to gravitate towards her. She quietly spoke stories that she'd heard before, and more and more came until there amassed before her a crowd. After finishing her most recent story, the Lorekeeper raised her head and cleared her throat. "Is it another story... you've come to me for...?" She croaked, peeling her lips back into a toothy grin. "Very well... I believe I have one... If I can remember the details..." Her voice faded out for a moment, eyes growing glossy as she retreated to the depths of her mind.

Then, they brightened up again. "Hush now. Where do I begin..."

This is a live story telling by the Lorekeeper. You will not be permitted to post your characters until the story is finished; you are allowed to post your characters entering, listening to the story, and exiting the thread. Lorekeeper will not be responding after the story is finished.

The canid beast cleared her throat and straightened up, shifting her front paws beneath her. "A long time ago... yes... before you existed... it was loud. It was very, very loud. There were noises from all over. I lived - I hid - in Canis." She began, gesturing with her nose to the surrounding room. "I was not a child... I'd never been a child. But I was young. Fresh. And I was naive to the world. I wish I'd been blessed with the understanding to know better... Perhaps it could have saved me... Though I suppose I am grateful to be alive now rather than back then." The Lorekeeper blinked and let loose a growly snicker.

"There were creatures you could trust, and then... there were those you could not. They would... attack you... hurt you... trick you... lead you astray... you were unwanted... but the ones like me, we could trust each other. We only wanted to survive. So we did, for the time during the great noise. We had to be quiet... had to sneak around, in the dark, when they weren't looking. We survived that way. It was good, and it was safe, the only way to continue living. Many didn't make it. But we did." Her heavy head nodded slowly. "We survived as long as we could... until, one day, the noise died down. All the creatures that made all the noise were gone; we looked from our hiding places, and everything had stopped."

"We rejoiced. We were finally able to be free... we could wander the caves, our home, without fear of being tricked or slaughtered. There was one room... the cursed room... the home of a monster... We feared it. Merely speaking of it made our hearts quake with fear. And so we never entered it. Some were curious... to see if the monster still lived there... but their curiosity granted them only death. We avoided it... but everywhere else... belonged to us." The canid creature raised her head and slowly closed her eyes, returning to that time long since passed. "I remember... leaving this room, through the tunnels... for the first time... on the back of my friend. My legs have never worked... but he was kind." She nodded. "We went through the forbidden tunnel... into the city of the stars... and the throne was empty. It was proof that we were free... so we continued, and for the first time, I saw the core... The home of the great glowing heart... Energy... boundless energy. Once harnessed by the ones that made noise, no more. It was free to spread through the caves. It lifted us." The Lorekeeper's wistful voice cracked, fading away for a moment. Her five eyes were still closed, remembering. She could experience the feeling now. The tingling, crawling, the sensation of being alive - she had felt it for the first time, then.

"We continued on to the other rooms. Places we'd never seen before... like the room with the waterfall... it was vast and the water was so clear. The room with the jungle, trees that scraped the roof of the cave... It was the only place that wasn't quiet... and then the room of the swamp... buzzing. A buzzing. I would never forget the sound. It was a sound that permeated me to my very core... The cursed room." Her voice dropped.

"Many of us knew of it, we peered inside... the cave... we saw it... but we never entered it. It was the only room we forbade ourselves from entering... for fear of the curse." Her voice had grown grave. "For a long time, we were free, and happy... sometimes, we would hear the buzzing in different rooms, but it would go away. It was an omen... but if we did not acknowledge it, it would leave. Omen of the cursed room... we couldn't have known any better... we were safe... until one day. We heard a voice. It was small and fragile. A broken voice... it pleaded for help." The Lorekeeper opened her eyes, looking to the Gembounds that had gathered before her. "My friend, he took me on his back and we went. All of us. Alone, we were not strong... but the voice... it might have been one of us. Together, we could be strong enough to help it... to save it. So we all went."

"We thought the voice was near... but as we walked, it kept going farther... and farther... but we believed that it needed our help. It fled through tunnels, and through the different rooms... until it brought us to the cursed room. And we stopped, and we stared in apprehension. The room of the swamp... the room... but the buzzing was gone. We believed it to be a sign... we were meant to help the lost one. With fear, we went into the room. Some of us... the most cowardly... stayed behind. They acted as scouts. The rest of us... we plunged into the cursed room. We walked... among the trees... we listened... the voice called, and cried... and it took us to the very center. The heart of the room... We emerged from the trees... and we saw it, the swamp. My blood ran cold... I could remember stories... stories told to me by others... of the monster. The monster that lived there. The curse." She paused and cleared her throat again.

"We waited to hear the voice... we could not see where it came from... but we waited. Only... it never came... We stood at its shore, and we looked... and then the air began to buzz. We saw the surface ripple. The buzzing... we had been tricked. We fled as fast as we could. I raised my head, on the back of my friend. I turned my head and looked. I could just... I could barely see it... the head of the monster burst forth... And then we left." She'd held her breath and let loose a sigh, shuddering. "We were free from the monster... but we had been betrayed. Half of us believed that it was the voice that betrayed... but the others... they still believed the voice to be in danger. It was quiet for another while after that, and we were slow to make our way back to our home... the room of the stars... we were almost there, when the voice rang out again."

The canid cleared her throat yet again, tilting her head up. Her voice lifted, attempting to mimic the fragile lilt of the voice in her memory, but her ancient intones could hardly match it. "Help! Help me, please! I'm stuck! I've been stuck here for so long... Somebody please help!" Lorekeeper twisted her ears back, coughing and running her tongue across her jowls. "Those of us that believed... argued that we were wrong in following it to the cursed room. That our ears... were faulty... we were wrong. We wanted to help... the ones that believed followed the voice. My friend... wished to go... and I would not let him go alone... I went, too. Together, we all followed the voice... a second time. It led us through only one tunnel, this time. Before... we came to the windy room. This room... this was the home of the strongest... creatures... not us... we were never strong enough. We had looked, before... and they were gone. It would be safe to go. So... we went." Her voice softened, and then it grew hard, darkening. "But again... we were deceived."

"There was no helpless creature there, in the windy room... instead... it was the chaos beast."

Her eyes widened. Remembering... images... the chaos beast. "He appeared before us in the windy room... he descended... from the ceiling... a gaping maw... The ceiling, it was a gaping maw; it had always been, but we should have known... should have known from where it would lead. Should have known... the hot air from the maw... the room of the lava... the home of the chaos beast. It was where he resided. And he had come to us, from his Hell. He had been waiting for us."

Her voice began to shake with fear. The canid turned her gaze back to the gathering, curling her nose up in a snarl, and the attempted to mimic the voice of the beast. "FOOLS!" She boomed, leaning closer. "YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD HIDE FOREVER! YOU THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER FIND YOU? I SHALL CONSUME EVERYTHING! I SHALL DEVOUR THIS CAVE, AND THEN I SHALL DEVOUR EVERYTHING BEYOND! IT IS MY PURPOSE, AS YOURS IS TO DIE! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE FATE!" The canid shouted and erupted in a thunderous, deep laugh - obviously trying to sound like the chaos beast. Her laughter soon ran out into another sputtering coughing fit.

She gasped for air and finally caught her breath then leaned back again, squaring her shoulders. "We shook beneath him... This was not the cursed monster... This was so much worse. The chaos beast... whom none could ever escape. What saved us... earlier... was that... his home could not reach ours... He had become lost in the place he knew... until something brought him here." Her voice was growing raspy. "The chaos beast came down on us... like a wave of fire... just a bright flash, and we were... that was it. We scattered. My friend - he ran, we could feel the heat, the heat was on him. I fell. The others ran, too... they trampled me. A pain, in my jaw. I could not speak, nor move... but I could see. I saw them run, and the chaos beast lunged forward. He consumed them all in fire."

"I felt death upon me. I would die, this day... at the hands of the chaos beast... all I could see was destruction. But... through the flame... I saw something. I thought... I thought she'd been one of us. But I was wrong..."

"Through the fire, I saw her... the weak little lamb... she was the only of us to bear a name. Her name... Dawa... the lamb. We thought... she was weak, like us... she, too, was in hiding. But it was not so... the lamb had merely been lost... just like the chaos beast." The Lorekeeper's voice strained with sadness. "Her presence... it was all that soothed him. What smoke... what fire... poured from his jaws... dissipated in the wind. He lowered himself before her, and his rumbling shook the earth... The lamb... Dawa... the great pacifier. She whispered to him, and she kissed him. I lay on the ground and I watched, with hope that I would survive..." Her voice trailed off for a moment, blinking. Then she came back.

"It would not end there. From the tunnels, came a great sweeping cold... Ice on the wind... The wind... it picked up, swirling, turning around us. The great bird had burst into the room. On vast wings, he blew the fire away. The chaos beast had forgotten his peace. The bird came down with his talons, breathing ice on the beast who thrashed. Gnashing jaws. They clashed and took to the air, above us. Another had come in after... some elegant monster, I remember... long legs... arms... a gentle face. I was alone. My friends, the ones I could trust, they lay as smoldering ash... in their place, the greater ones... the stronger ones... The ones... meant to watch... but they argued among themselves. Screaming, no, it is not meant to be this way. Let him have them." She growled.

"The bird and the beast fought. Hot and cold melded, turning the winds. Fresh and stale, burning, freezing, all the same. A storm picked up around us... and I watched as the chaos beast set the bird alight, and the bird smothered his fire, turning his throat to ice. The fray carried into the air, higher... they danced up... up... into the maw... snarling, shrieking. Below, the gentle-faced bayed for the bird's return... the lamb had fled. I could hear them... and then... a screech... and the beast burst from the maw. He tumbled down and shook the ground with his collision, and he rolled, until he disappeared. Beyond... a wall... beyond my sight... I could hear him still, crashing... until it fell still. And then came the bird... his... a graceful descent... tattered wings, spiraling down... and he landed before the gentle-faced." The canid's voice lowered again. What excitement filled her lungs had died down to a gentle, somber intone. "Though they had fallen... the storm remained. The winds, they raged... perhaps, angry that they had been awoken... angry that they had been left... by their creators... they continued, spinning in the room... eternally roaring against the quiet."

"The gentle-faced... tended to the bird... took him away. The lamb, I had seen... slip away... down the walls, after the beast. And I was left alone. I waited... I lay there... in agony... for days. I waited... for the beast to emerge from beyond, and finally take me. But... he never came. The gentle-face, and the bird... too had never returned... I was alone for so long..." She sighed. "All I could do... was drag myself from the windy room. The storm, it craved to take me in... but I neglected its pull. I went back... back to the only place that... would offer me sanctuary. Back... to Canis... and I hid. And I slept... I slept in the new quiet... in the dark... and then... I woke... to you."

The Lorekeeper stared empty at the ones before her. Slowly, her lips curled up in a smile. She lingered silent for a few moments more, mulling over the story, over the memories, before sliding down onto her stomach. "Now... I must rest my weary voice... come see me again, another time, for another story... Until then." She faded into silence again, setting her heavy head on the ground.

The story has concluded. You are now free to post your characters. Lorekeeper has exited.

He wasn't sure where they were exactly, all he knew was that everyone was in for a treat! So many others like himself! Other gembounds from all over! Big and small and those who he had never seen before! But with such excitement for a story from someone new he kept focused on the canid beast! They spoke of a time before the cub existed. They had lived, no hid in Canis, this room of bones. A frown was given to this face, to hide is not much of a life lived. They spoke of a time where they weren't a child, that they never were. He could hardly imagine such a thing! Everyone he had met up to now, had been a child! Hatched from their very own gem. This story teller, they were something else! Though you didn't precisely need the story to pick up on that.

She spoke of the noise, and then silence. How she and others were able to finally be free! To wander and live without fear! He sat there, wiggling in place! Happy for the quick turn of events! Only to have his face twist into one of concern as she spoke of the cursed room. The home of a monster! He had a feeling this monster would make another appearance in her story. He was happy but stricken with pity as he learned she could not use her legs. But that she had been carried out and throughout this world. Her friend was very kind indeed. She spoke of a room of stars, one of boundless energy! Oh how he wished he could see these rooms! He would have to ask Clover for guidance with these future adventures!

When she spoke about a room of swamp he smiled, making a verbal sound of excitement as he knew that place. It had to be Cetus! His home! Though she spoke of a buzzing and that cursed room again. He grew silent now, waiting for the story to unfold before his very eyes. The buzzing would move? Like the flies in Cetus? Is that what they were? But they were a curse? He mused on this, only to be taken aback as they spoke of a voice. A small, fragile and broken voice that pleaded for help. He swallowed hard, would they help them? What happened next!?

They followed to help this new friend, followed it through many tunnels and rooms. Only to be brought to the room of swamp, Cetus? It had to be Cetus, his home was somewhat of a swamp. Though the monster in the story alarmed him as she continued. That it was a trap and they had all fled from the danger of what lurked there. He swallowed hard again. She loyally went with her friend, she wouldn't let him go alone. The cub would have done the same! Though as she spoke of the room of wind, he could feel that the monster was to arrive soon in her story. Visibly jumping back as she leaned closer, voice booming as she yelled 'FOOLS!'

It was the monster! She echo'd the deep thunderous laugh, attempting to mimic the voice from oh so many years ago. Only to sputter into a coughing fit. The cub was at the edge of his seat now! He knew this had to be the cursed monster! But he was wrong, it was what she called the chaos beast! Whom none could ever escape. Maw wide the cub let out a gasp! They had to get out of there! How did she escape!?

She didn't, eyes full of excitement and wonder grew wet as she spoke of her falling. Being trampled out of fear by those she knew. She watched the fire consume them all. Spoke of the lamb named Dawa, how it pacified the chaos beast. And soon the great battle of the strong ones took place above her. And all she could do was lay there. Waiting for death till she fought against it. Till she dragged herself from the windy room and into Canis, where she had fell asleep. And awoke...to him?

She stood there curling a smile at all who listened to the story she shared. It was silent, everyone was taking in the events that she had poured out to them. Sliding down to her stomach she invited them for another story, another time. Peacefully laying her head down in what the cub assumed would be a long nap.

Eyes still wet from the story he looked up to his tall ethereal friend. All he could do was sniffle and smile all the same. He enjoyed the story very much. It evoked a melting pot of emotions with him. Sadness, excitement and sheer happiness that this Lorekeeper shared such a tale of their life to them.


"Speech"

"Thought"

The filly had been there when the Lorekeeper was salvaged from the bones of Canis. Albeit she hadn't done much in the way of unburying her considering she'd managed to fracture her leg in the process but nonetheless, she was glad for the way things had unfurled. When the creature offered to share a story of times before any of them had come to, Delphine could not deny the elation that coursed through her. For so long she'd accumulated only questions regarding their origin, tending to an existential crisis that would not be answered by her many encounters thus far. Perhaps now things would be different. Whoever the Lorekeeper was, to Delphine, she was the bearer of answers that she'd been looking for.

So it was, as the Gembounds gathered one by one to heed the words of the ancient creature, the filly remained one singular soul within the crowd. A face in a sea of strangers equally eager in their reception of what was to come. Somehow she'd been bold enough to situate herself firmly in front of the creature as she lowered her body to the ground and folded her stilted legs beneath her. After assuming a fairly comfortable position, her ears perked and she readied herself for the words to come.

As the story unfurled so too did Delphine's understanding and lack thereof of their world now. She recognized most of the room's that were mentioned, imagined them in her mind when the Lorekeeper spoke of their curses, winds and water. She cringed appropriately when her voice boomed and furrowed her brows when attempting to paint herself an image of the creatures which she'd introduced yet most of all, she questioned the loud noises that they'd been hiding from. Working through the muddled mixture of ambiguities and specificities was a task in and of itself but she tried to be thankful that there was anything being imparted upon them at all. The story itself bore with it its beginning, middle and end. A climax that piqued as it should have but with it all, there were only more questions that remained unanswered and the filly fidgeted with some such desires to inquire for more. But she knew better.

When the story came to an end and the Lorekeeper declared herself too weary to continue forth, Delphine was left in a state of absolute awe and confusion. What were the strange noises that came from the room of stars? Was it related to the ruined city and structures that lay tattered there? Did the chaos creature still exist? She burned her questions to mind and soul, remembering them for a more appropriate time before standing up. With a small dip of her head, Delphine whispered, "Thank you, Lorekeeper." Her low dulcet tones crooned from black lips before she turned and hobbled away, her smaller form melding into the shadows of a tunnel leaving in its wake the ghost of her phantom inquiries.

exit delphine!