craack, splinter: flex, push. push, wriggle, flex. it fractured: that blackened, polished stone. it moved. it shuddered. it cracked, and creaked. from beneath, through the hairline fissures across it's surface poked and bristled the banded threads of a fine coat. a nose, the glimpse of a bright eye, and whiskers. a shuffle reverberated from within the agate -- the gembound loose, and rampant within it's own cage. it's small prison had shrunk (or had she grown?), and it seemed now was the very day she'd be let loosed upon the world. and so it continued, craaack, another splinter as the thing pushed, and flexed. her back scraped against the hollowed interior, her legs pressing the small oval paws against the floor. impatient, and rather rambunctious she'd scramble and unravel. pointed claws extended, one reaching through the break. a sound droned out from the stone, a heated purr, as the feline gembound once more pushed against her nest. craaaack, and soon: a breath. an exhale. soft, simple. a whisper, and then there she was. free.

eyes of ocean foam stared at the shuddering object; in the dark, it could not offer beaded light upon anything. it glowed even still, faint, reflecting upon the wall... and when the seismic movements of it grew, she was intrigued enough to approach it, to see for herself what was happening here in the dead of whatever hour it was—time, a foregone thought—and there it was! something emerged from its chrysalis, a tiny, thin, bony... foreleg. she was brought back to two nights past, when she had emerged from her shell, woman in the body of a child. this, a shell she yearned to escape from. her body, as much of a prison to her as the damnable shell itself, and the bedeviled woman moved to swipe the egg toward her. it was smaller than her, a kitten; her own claws peeled at the stone, away. hello, little thing, the little one herself speaks, you are mine. finders keepers. && to rouse the babe, further, she searches inside herself to remove some water, to soak the felidae, r i s e a n d s h i n e. but alas, she could not reach that part of herself... she would try again, soon.

a voice, a voice beckoned and pulled where she had pushed. a sound, a roll of syllables and lace. there is something, something that pulls against her mouth. the muscles there pinched upwards. from somewhere in her mind, she knows this to be a smile -- an instinctive thing, that was wholly inexplicable. an impulse, and what she feels to be the first of many. a kitten, a child: and there before her, a larger self. made like her own frail body, though bigger, b e t t e r. her rounded eyes examined this thing, that claimed her. that called to her. purring still, the little gembound removed herself from the rubble that was the womb that bore her, and towards the speckled wonder that was her mistress. she'd drag the length of her body along the closest of artemis's limbs, nuzzling as she did, with her tail arched high above her back -- accepting this new thing, this larger being.

it came to her and coddled against her. though one would not know it yet, she despised to be touched, the control she gave to the other—no!—and so she pressed water forth from skin, to disenchant, to push away, and it came out in beaded drops as though sweat, but enough so that it would encourage the other to step away. if not, she herself would, and she sashayed in the opposing direction, claws out, lips drawn, revealing a row of tiny teeth that pinched and pulled and penetrated as pins and needles would. do not touch, comes her sharp words... but how swift she is to disobey her own command! to move toward the kitten, to reach out and pull her tow'rd her breast, do you have a name? she breathes breezily into the childs ear—or, should she herself name her?

the revulsion, repulsion, was unclear for the tiny gembound. the words, though hissed through the bleak row of fanged tooth, did little to dissuade the kitten. instead, those rounded eyes turned up towards the elder child's face, brows folding into themselves in an inquisitive frown. why why why. no touching, no feeling. she would not retreat, and abandoned the desire to ask of the girl's loathing for her company. claimed one moment, rejected the next -- though, incapable of being hurt by this reprimand, she was elated by the embrace. drawn into the girlthing's chest, the purr reverberated louder from the minute kitten. "dita" the sounds came together, drawn from the darkness of her mind. seeded there, in her heart. this, her name. this, the first of many truths she'd pull from it's blackened core.

the jaguar cub could not help her smothering adoration and imminent abhoration that came in intervals. none were an exception to this rule, not even the hatchling before her. darling dita, she cooed, and withdrew again, tail flicking behind her as she maintained her balance in her slow-shift away. the young girl prowls along the throne, captivated still by the place... and looked back to the kitten. what can you do...? beings were only as important as their uses to her, and how, oh how, could this little one come to help her...?

"do?" she'd drawl, a cherubic sound filled and polluted with mischief. she'd grin, kittenish lips drawn wide and cartoonish at the thought. she immediately knew what her jaguar friend requested. she felt it in the weighted black stone along her spine. she felt it in her bones. dita watched as she'd retreated, as she drifted against the throne looming above them. do. she asked, do she commanded. the girlthing's head turned, looking into the illuminated hall. stepping towards the unknown, beneath her paw she'd felt the rounded top of a pebble. curiously, she'd urge something from within, to place a piece of herself within it. (post-roll edit) and beneath her touch it began to shimmer, to glow. that plain, ugly little thing she'd found had begun to glow.

as the kitten removed herself, the cub rushed forward in delight toward the glowing stone, a sharp gasp falling forth from parted lips... for me, dita? she mewled, ( o, you shouldn't have! ) and thusly pulled it toward her, her seafoam eyes reflecting the glow of the object the kitten had brought to life... but what to do with it? it was so lovely, she needed it with her as surely as she now desired dita to be by her side... they would make true use of the light within her yet!

i do love it, she purrs, covetously.