He had seen fewer faces as of late. No faces that he used to know, except Leon - but even the bear was hardly around anymore. Ghanyarah wondered where they'd all gone, if they'd died or retreated back to their chrysali again, like he had. Maybe they found some better place to be or they were just... busy. Regardless, he'd found it an opportunity to get to explore. He'd seen much more of the cave than he'd ever known, rooms that he had only caught glimpses of, or poked his head inside but never truly explored. Places once inhabited by groups of Gembounds that might have been hostile - now they were empty. Lonely. He began to know them more intimately than he'd ever dreamed.

But the komodo dragon hadn't really dreamed of knowing things before. He'd never really dreamed of anything. Dreams and wants and wishes were for the foolish, and Ghanyarah was a practical beast. He knew that wanting led to disappointment and failure. He'd never had room in his heart to accept failure, and he'd never had the need to want anything more than he possessed besides food and other carnal desires anyways.

Since the caves had grown quieter, he'd found those wants slowly mounting. They were wants for familiarity, for the gentleness of Gracie's voice or for the strange heat and embarrassment Arkrael brought to his face. He wanted to tell a bad joke to someone, but there was never anyone around. Sometimes fury gave him the impulse to lash out, but there was no one to hurt. His jaws hungered for some kind of struggle, but the lesser mice that scampered through the jungle of Cetus were always too easy of a meal, and Ghanyarah didn't fancy running into another big spider at the risk of getting himself in trouble again - this time, without his groupmates to help.

Worse than this, now he was beginning to suffer from the steadily climbing heat. He had no idea why the caves were beginning to feel hotter. Maybe it was his imagination, but he was pretty sure that the ice usually coating some of the rooms and tunnels was thinning. Something was wrong, and Ghanyarah was beginning to feel his desire for companionship growing more dire by the day. He needed solace during this change.

The beast had slithered up from Cetus, through the tunnels into the heart of the cave where often he'd seen the great, glowing blue spire in the distance. An ever present sentinel humming with power - perhaps the only thing that hadn't changed. It was there than Ghanyarah walked until he had reached the crystals sprouting violently from the earth, splitting stone and dirt, perpetually illuminating the core of Polaris. And it was there that he waited, hoping that today, he would finally see someone else. Maybe not someone he recognized, but someone. Maybe, with them, he could make something new. Something that could outlast this, whatever this was.

True, being alone made you the best. But it also made you the worst. Kin-Kin felt incomplete without someone to brag to, show off to. Walking around so well-groomed and decorated with dancing lights would only pay off if there was someone to see it. For months, all that effort had been wasted. Kin-kin had kept on going, to a point... but even she, the magical champion and most tenacious wolf in the caves (self proclaimed) had experienced a drop in morale in the previous months. She found her cape becoming more moth-eaten and her fur becoming duller with dust, it was that long since she saw anyone. She continued to train, and so her sleek muscles remained, but that was out of boredom more than anything. And yet, even those were beginning to wilt as the wolf began to realize that her reward of fame and fruition, would never come.

This cycle's trek was down to the crystal river for a drink; it was the only journey she still had the motivation for, and the motivation came from her dry throat rather than a particular want.

However, on the way, Kin-Kin caught a whiff of something. Something alive. In response, something stirred in that heart of hers, the want-... no... the need not just to boast but to hear someone's voice again. She had to make this moment count. By the time she stumbled to a halt at the riverside her throat stung with her panting and she promptly guzzled as much water as she could hold.

With her still-wet toungue she began to preen off the dust in a frantic manner. She had to act fast! With her fur lapped until shimmering, the wolf hopped to her paws and raced towards the spire. Her eyes were bright. This was perfect! This place would make her fur shine like a thousand stars. But that wasn't all! The wolf reached inside, looking for a spark of long-dormant magic to set her fur alight.

It took some digging, but it was there... first there was a glimmer of colour, and then a little flash... but by the time she reached her destination, Kin-Kin's fur was lit by rainbows. This was it. This was her moment. Kin-Kin slowed to a trot, trying to appear calm. Her motions should be slow and effortlessly elegant.

After so long she saw the face of another gembound. The wolf could never remember feeling so happy, or so proud.

The wolf approached without a word. She had to let her grandeur do all the talking. But when she stood opposite the large reptillian creature it suddenly struck herthat she was just... stood here. Just... looking at them! Her fantasies, it seemed, had gotten the better of her. As had all her time alone.

"Heh... heh...?" for the first time since puppyhood, she let out an awkward chuckle and looked at her paws. "So.... what d'ya think?" She used her tail to slightly shift her battered cape. This could have been better planned.

But even so, she was back.

---

The reptile didn't know how long he'd have to wait, but he was committed. For so long he'd wandered, following his fickle curiosity, unable to linger for long out of need to see more. Ghanyarah wasn't going to give this up so easily - he'd already seen everything there was to see, at least, that's what he felt. There were rooms he could have spent more time in. Maybe he'd even entertain the idea of finding a new haunt. His tree, the bark now littered with drawings, was a thing of sentiment and memory. Sometimes, those memories hurt more than they nurtured, and Ghanyarah wondered if it would be healthier to just move on.

He'd let his head rest on his scaly feet, claws idly scratching at the dull stone beneath. He hadn't perched on the crystal spire itself, only near it; he'd heard stories of the spire having a mind of its own. Its light wavered and danced, the soft blue glinting on his nails and the dull grey scales of his arms. Ghanyarah observed the subtle glow for a long time, then at some point, he'd fallen asleep.

It wasn't often that Ghanyarah let himself fall asleep in such a vulnerable position, but when he did, he was subconsciously aware. The soft padding of footfall was quick to rouse him, though he wasn't expecting what it would lead him to see. When his eyes peeled open again, the first thing they fixated on was a blurry, chromatic light that seemed to be charging towards him.

Ghanyarah blinked. And he blinked again. He rubbed his face against his arm and tried to make sense of the light, wondering if he was still dreaming, but as it came closer it started to take the shape of an animal. He was made to think of Eve and her light, but this was something far bigger, with a long blue tail that shuddered as it walked. No, not a tail. A cape. It tightly hugged the body of the beast that encroached on him, its brightness mounting as Ghanyarah slowly squinted into the rainbow glow.

And when it stopped, he finally distinguished the details from its shimmering, multi-hued fur. The long snout, the tall legs, pointed ears atop its head. It was... a dog.

She chuckled nervously and asked him what he thought, and Ghanyarah was still trying to blink the shine out of his eyes before giving her a belated, "Very bright."

Wow! How observant of him! How eloquent of those first words he had spoken in a long time, to the first Gembound he had seen in who knew how long? Good job Ghanyarah. You're really on the ball.

He cleared his throat and straightened up, now scrambling to think of something to say. How could it be that he'd been so intent on crushing his loneliness that he hadn't even considered what he might say once he finally found someone else? What could he do? How could he go about this without sounding like some kind of socially inept freak? Oh here's an idea! Do the exact same thing, like some kind of socially inept freak.

The reptile extended his limbs to stand as tall as he could - which wasn't very tall - and put his focus into his magic. The moisture in the air began to condense into a thick layer of fog that clung to his body, rolling off of him in ephemeral, liquid waves, before he quickly lost his grip and the mist fell from his body like silk. It dissipated again as it hit the ground, but it looked cool, so Ghanyarah totally played it off like he meant to do it that way. "What do you think?" He countered smartly, but it was obvious Ghanyarah was still quite half asleep, and thus a little sloppy.

Kin-Kin let her lips curve into a slightly shaky, awkward smirk at their response. Probably from lack of practice, the rainbows that glistened over her fur were already beginning to fade. "Well... that's... kinda the point. I guess? Heh-heh..." The wolf didn't have the heart for insults. Not right now. This was the first time she'd spoken to anyone in cycles. She didn't want to drive them away! They could at least compliment her first. "And I mean. This ain't even the brightest I can be!"

The wolf perked up some more. She watched them raise themselves up on stumpy legs. slowly, she tilted her head to the side; purple eyes glinting with curiosity. They then began to pour with mist; clearly a kind of magic that she'd never seen before. Her brows twitched in surprise, and her ears perked. How strange! Kin-Kin had to learn that at some point. Subtle, but effective. Kin-Kin imagined what she could do with the mist combined with her light magic!

Despite her thoughts, she simply smirked wryly at their question, holding her chin high and looking down at them with eyes half-lidded with cockiness. "Very misty," she drawled, just as they had. Her pristine white fangs flashed as she grinned. "...But! Not bad." Had to keep them invested somehow. Coming from Kin-Kin, such words were the highest of compliments.

Slowly, the wolf lowered herself to the ground and sat regally back on her haunches.

Her rainbow magic had long since worn off, and Kin-Kin felt that the atmosphere was a little gloomy. If folks were returning, she had to get her act together, and fast. The wolf wished she'd kept herself well groomed. But no matter! She knew that now was the time to get back to her old ways. Old habits die hard and she assumed they'd resurrect easy enough. Kin-Kin raised a paw and licked at her claws, eyeing the large lizard she faced.

Take a gander at this...

Almost effortlessly by now, a soft glow flared to life in her fur. Aside from a smug glance, though, she didn't acknowledge that it had any effort put in at all. Almost as though it were natural to suddenly light up.

Slowly, she lowered her paw. "So, ya have a name, pop?" She could tell, not only by their scent but by the way they held themselves, that they were far older than she was. A mean feat, seeing as the wolf wasn't exactly a gemling herself. Then again, Kin-kin was more used to speaking with younger creatures. Perhaps she was simply misinterpreting it. "And what brings ya outta hiding all of a sudden? Haven't seen anyone in cycles!"

---

Oh, she could be even brighter? But why would anyone ever want to be so bright and obvious? So noticeable... So vulnerable. He couldn't imagine a better way to paint a target on one's back. Ghanyarah flicked his tongue thoughtfully, but said nothing, dwelling on her words instead. He tried to wrap his head around what she was trying to do in the first place, coming up to him and glowing like she was one of the lights that hung from the ropes above. Was she trying to threaten him?

Wait. The komodo narrowed his eyes. Was she trying to threaten him? The nerve! He'd finally come out looking for some company and the first thing he ran into was a dog who thought she could intimidate him with... pretty lights?!

She didn't even seem all that intrigued by his own misty tricks! She was trying to threaten him, wasn't she! Well maybe Ghanyarah could show off something a little more deserving of her immediate interest! She wouldn't shine so bright drenched in water, would she?

Externally, he hadn't realized that he'd been betraying the nature of his thought process. His expressions metamorphosed between suspicion and anger and devious arrogance as he crafted a plan to put the wolf in her place, his previous intentions of finding companionship all but squashed in the face of a sudden threat to his ego. No matter that he'd spent months sulking over the loss of his companions - all it took was another cocky Gembound to set him back on track. There was no telling exactly how long it would last, however.

She raised her paw and began to glow, which Ghanyarah could only interpret as another attempt to intimidate him. He flicked his tongue and vibrated the very tip of his tail, preparing his own rebuttal. The choices were many - he considered twisting the blood in her body, or swallowing her with a wave of water, but none seemed quite right, and he hadn't realized he'd been staring at the soft glow of her fur before she suddenly spoke again, snapping him from his insidious devices.

"Pops?" He immediately echoed, then snorted. What, did she think she was the only Gembound in the cave? "I live in Cetus. I have been exploring the caves in the absence of other Gembounds. The fact that you had not seen me must be due to inattention. I was quite obvious." Ghanyarah articulated lamely. Actually, he wasn't obvious at all. He made a point not to be obvious. "For a beast with such an obnoxious glow, I'd have thought you'd be brighter." At this, he couldn't help but crack a primeval, toothy smirk from the corner of his maw. It felt good to tell a bad joke. He forgot about trying to one-up her with magic - for now.

Perhaps it was the fact that she'd been on her own for a few cycles, but the way their facial expression changed amused her. Surely that was on purpose. Were they trying to be so hilarious? Kin-Kin let out a soft snicker. It seemed she wouldn't be needing a sharp tongue after all; this was shaping up to be just as fun either way.

"Cetus, huh? Ain't that the swamp? Ugh, no wonder I haven't seen you before," the wolf continued to smirk. Her ears perked, but at their retorting she only grinned wider. Her smile faded slightly at their insult, though. She hadn't been expecting that! Perhaps from their introduction, she felt that this was going to be a leisurely talk with a beast that was all brawn and no brain. "Heh... heh... is that so?" she asked them in a dilatory manner, trying to draw out the seconds to give more time to come up with a suitable reply. She dropped her head and began to lick plaintively at her opposite forelimb, around which a blue crystal entwined like a vine. The wolf wished she'd brought her sword, but carrying it was quite uncomfortable, however impressive it might be.

She'd been stalling for far too long by this point. The she-wolf decided to simply change the subject, whilst the fur along the back of her neck stood on end in embarrassment. It'd been so long since someone had actually retorted that she'd forgotten how to swing things in her favour. She'd have to get around to practicing that.

...And then it struck her! The perfect comeback, only a little late.

"...Were you practicing that one since the cave went quiet?" she offered weakly after some time, raising her head once more to look back at them. Her usual devilish grin was almost pleading. "Heh, heh!"

It seemed she hadn't quite lost it, after all.

---

Ghanyarah tilted his head slightly. If there was any better way to manifest his confusion into an expression, it would be through knitted brows or a tight downturn of his lips. But Ghanyarah couldn't move the ridges over his eyes like that. He ended up staring at her with a slightly cocked head as if she had just spoken complete gibberish.

What was so bad about Cetus? Yes, it was swampy. It was dark and wet and muddy and smelly, and that was exactly how Ghanyarah liked it. The only thing that might make it better was if the water was colder, and if he didn't have this subtle lingering fear of Aquarian exploding up from below and swallowing him whole. But besides that, Cetus had always been his home. Why did she sound so displeased? Perhaps she had former experience with his groupmates - he could understand how they might have made less than desirable company. He was not blind to the differences between their behavior and that of the other groups.

There were no groups anymore though. The lines between the primeval, morally questionable Gembounds and the ones that operated like a closely knit, organized family unit who cared only about the wellbeing of their kin were blurred. The dichotomy - us and them; the Children of Rot and the others: Maji Walezi, the Bonebound, the Merrymen - it was gone. He'd always known who reflected his ideals but now? All that was up in the air.

And that concerned him. He was suddenly met with someone that might not have agreed with how his kin operated.

Her voice drew him out of his thoughts and Ghanyarah shifted his sunset eyes back to the wolf, realizing the pause that settled between them. "Yes." He answered, almost too eagerly. "I have a specific collection of jokes for Gembounds of every element. Would you like to hear more? I promise the humor's fairly light." Ghanyarah added with another slow creeping smile. Haha! Get it? Because she... glows.

"Oh, I am Ghanyarah, by the way. Not Pops."

"Whatcha lookin' at me like that for...?" Kin-Kin noticed the way the large lizard tilted his head at her, looking as though there were something she ought to say. But of course, it didn't take long for the wolf to realize that of course, she'd insulted their home. "Heh. I didn't mean it like that. Look. I'm partial to my fur being the way it is now! Gold and soft and shiny, not all mangy and knotty and black! And smelling the way it is now, for that matter. My cape would never be the same if I went in there!" She snorted, giving a shudder at the mere thought of trying to clean it off. If that ever happened, she'd most definitely need a new cape. She rolled her shoulders, shuffling said cape at her back. It had been way too long since she'd acknowledged it. "Nothin personal though, y'know. Just... ah... personal preference." The wolf didn't seem very apologetic, but the way she saw it, it wasn't an insult.

"It's hard enough avoiding those disgusting slime trails. But then again... I think I get it now. Are those yours?" she looked a little accusingly at the komodo dragon. "Then again, it didn't smell like you. It smelled a whole lot worse. And that's saying a lot." she winked in the lizard's direction, a grin taking its usual place across her face.

Kin-Kin couldn't help but laugh at their response to her question, which had been an attempt at a sarcastic retort. That had been way too easy. And she definitely wasn't expecting them to be so happy about being insulted. She might have felt bad for them if it wasn't so damn hilarious. Her bell-like cackle rang out, even more after his next bad joke. This was such an odd situation. Was it loneliness that had done this to her? "Glow on..." she pressed with her snickers continuing quite drastically, even as she fixed them with her violet stare.

"Ghanyarah, eh? That's kinda a mouthful, ain't it? Besides, I still think Pops suits ya."

---

He was still confused when she started talking about her fur, flicking his eyes over her thick coat of shiny, sleek gold. She was right, though, if she waded through the mud then it would leave her dark and grimy. Ghanyarah wondered if she might look a little better with darker fur, and when he tried to imagine it, he was met with the memory of Arkrael. She looked like that - a mud strafed wolf, only her eyes were... green, like fresh leaves. Kin-Kin's eyes were a lot more like Gracie's.

While she was continuing on about her cape and how she couldn't get it dirty, and how he shouldn't take it personally, Ghanyarah found himself distracted thinking back to the faces of his old companions. He blinked back to her when she started talking about slime trails, shifting his gaze to her side and behind her as if expecting to see one right there. He hadn't ever seen any of those slime trails she spoke of. Then she accused him of leaving those slime trails behind, and Ghanyarah's eyes widened with disbelief that she would even think he would leave a trail everywhere he went. That was like! The fastest way to get yourself killed. Anything would be able to find him if he did that!

"Interesting." He added as she took it back, stating it was far smellier than him. Ghanyarah never quite considered his own smelliness before. He made a mental note to hunt down these slime trails and see what kind of a creature was bold enough to leave them behind.

She only encouraged him to keep telling bad jokes with her own terrible pun, and Ghanyarah showed his teeth in a reptilian smile that just as quickly faded as she insisted on calling him Pops. "My name is Ghanyarah." He insisted. He'd gone through quite an ordeal to find his name. It was important that she used it properly. "Who are you? And what is your purpose in the cave, anyways? What do you do?" Everyone had a purpose. Well, they were supposed to. Ghanyarah had been struggling to keep his purpose.

"Ya think?" Kin-Kin asked at first, but when she stopped to think about it more realized that he was right. It seemed the silence of the caves had made her brain numb if she hadn't considered following the slime trails to lead to some kind of adventure. It couldn't be coincidence that she started finding them as the caves went silent, surely. Conspiracies began to swirl through her brain, ideas of glory and a thousand Gembounds cheering her name. Maybe she ought to have a look, as well...

Kin-Kin realized that she'd gotten lost in fantasies, and hastily shook her head to bring herself back to reality. Hunting down a creature that left slime trails was just begging to get covered in said slime, anyway. And that was the opposite of what she wanted. What was glory worth if you didn't look your best when you got it? The wolf looked sheepishly back at Ghanyarah, pretending she'd been listening the entire time. But luckily, it seemed they hadn't said much. "Heh, keep your scales on. I know. I was just sayin'." she laughed.

"The name's Kin-Kin! Magickal champion of the caves."

Of course, announcing that fact was nothing without a little show to go with it. A spark stole into her eyes and a flash of blue in her gem as she turned. She dropped her head in order to focus, but even then was unable to mask the surprise which crept onto her features... as in an instant, the wolf's fur had lit up with dancing patterns and auroras of every colour. Her fur was ablaze with golden light, and the auroras soon took flight upon the air...

The wolf's body was soon leaking colour in the form of glistening rainbow smoke. Kin-Kin raised her head, her eyes on Ghanyarah for a moment. And soon, as quickly as the spell had manifested, it was fading away again. All the colours faded off into the air, and only a glow was left, rippling over Kin-Kin's body like wind over fields of wheat. Yet, even those whispered echoes of magic wouldn't last forever. She knew that. But for this moment, the wolf had never been more proud. She was still the brightest star in Origin Cave.

That was one fact which wasn't gonna change any time soon.

---