He finds himself where he hid the stones from the creatures killed here. The blue and red, sitting nicely within the bush he'd placed them before. No one had taken them, neither of them have been revived since he's been gone. Aran sets the two he collected down next to them, smaller, but still obviously a usable stone.

He grabs the aqua blue stone from the second creature they killed here - this one is first.

The stone breaks, and he watches as it shatters into nothing. This scene feels oddly familiar, but he can't quite put a hoof on why. Was this one too weak for the magic to connect? Or was it just his fault somehow? He didn't feel much when he tried to cast the spell. Is his magic too weak? Aran is starting to think the smaller spells are somehow worse for him to cast than the big ones.

Oh well. He moves to the next, the red carnelian.

The first deinocornus gave them a lot of trouble. If this one doesn't work he's not sure if anything will.

Aran watches as the stone slowly turns into something larger, this one was strong. His magic connected to this one well enough for it to become something. He feels bad for the first, but there is not much he can do unless he goes looking for another. But there's no way he's going to find another stone of the species just laying around somewhere...

Next up is that first bat stone. The nice shade of green matches well with this place.

After a short resting break of a few days, Aran returns with something new in tow. The black diamond sits neatly in his mouth, no threat to his teeth due to him not having any in the front. Not the stone he'd planned to bring life to, but it will due. An odd mismatch of siblings - unless they all look like deer - but perhaps that's for the best. Not all of the gembound have to look the same, and there's no guarantee that all of them will hatch into anything in the first place.

He's heard of stones being revived and nothing coming out, even years after the chrysalis takes hold.

Of course, he's not sure if he's going to come back and search for the young. But maybe watching them would be a good idea just in case, so the large creatures of this cave don't try eating their homes until they birth. And then he can leave and never see them again. (He should be the one caring for them, but he killed one of them. Is that immoral? Everything he's doing here is immoral, isn't it?)

He sets the stone down.

He watches as the stone latches itself into the spot he placed it. The magic worked, all he has to do now is watch them until the young come out of the shells. He'll figure out what to do if they hatch around them when it happens. Hopefully it won't come to that, because he doesn't want to hurt a group of children.

He'll figure it out. He will.

Time to go, Aran will come back later.

[Exit]