Aztec never knew his world could get a lot bigger. It wasn't too long ago that he had met Desire, a fascinating white python. Everywhere in the caves had been dark, Aztec never knew of the existent of the lights, but deep down, he felt like there needed to be some. Is curiosity took him out of Monoceros and through the strange tunnel with many faces. It was here, at the entrance of Orion, that he saw the first light that wasn't his own.

A ceiling of crystals that glimmered beautifully, bathed the the large cavern in soft, silvery light. Aztec had been awestruck by this. As he explored his new world, a booming voice from above caught his attention. They were magnicfent winged creatures, and preposed a facinating quest: to find stones the color of their eyes. The reward would be wings. This sparked Aztec's interest. On wings, he would fly like those creatures. He could be like them.

The one they called Mintaka had spectral wings that spoke to him. They radiated balance, and Aztec admired that detail. He did not know why, perhaps he was too young to understand. Mintaka's eyes were blue like the crystals of Orion, so blue he shall find.

It wasn't long before a small, twinkling blue crystal caught his eye. Aztec bounded up to it on clumsy paws, excited by his find. However there was a problem, it was on a collumn and extemely high up. Aztec flexed his claws neverously. He had never climbed that high before, but there was only one way to get that stone, to get his wings.

He leped onto the column, digging his claws in its side and began to awkwardly shimmy his way up. Hugging the column for dear life, he dared not look down. Bit by bit, he inched toward the blue crystal, until he was in arm's reach of it. Aztec stretched out his paw, and tried to grappled the stone, but it was pretty firm. He shifted his weight, then suddenly, his claws slipped. Aztec screeched in terror as he plummeted to the ground. His body flailed in the air, but the fall was too great and he twisted his paw on his landing. Sharp pain shot through his foreleg, and Aztec found that it hurt to put pressure on it. He laided there, cringing as he licked his sore limb. The crystal sparkled above him, but Aztec lost interest. There was no way he could get it now.


"Speech"

To say Aztec was a quitter would be a gargantuan lie. He may have lost the battle, but he had not lost the war, not yet. After all, his wings were on the line. He wanted to be like those birds, even he twisted all four of his paws.

He limped ahead scanning the rock beds for anything blue or white. In Orion, a cavern filled with gems, it did not take long to find what he sought. There, jutting out from the stone, a rock the color of ice. Aztec broke it off with his good paw and picked it up in his jaws. It was almost as big as is mouth, but Aztec thought he could fit another one in there.


"Speech"

His paw throbbed with blunt pain, but he carried on, blue crystal in maw. He continued down the rock bed, attentive to the color of stones, like the one he just plucked from the ground.

It was so small Aztec almost missed it. He backed up quickly and locked eyes on the tiny, ice blue pebble. This was perfect! he could carry both of them in his mouth. He rolled it towards him and scooped up in his mouth. Then he turned towards the direction the birds had landed, racing towards in an odd, staggering limp.

- exit Aztec -

"Speech"