In the darkness of the Forum, the round room with the empty seats and the cold walls, lay a dark and shiny stone. It wriggled, and the wriggling caused what little light there was to reflect off the stone and suddenly the room lit up with a thousand tiny rainbows as all the flecks of color in the Black Opal chrysalis flashed on the walls. They disappeared a moment later as the wriggling stopped, and reappeared again as it continued. Thus was the slow process of Macawi’s “birth.”

Eventually, she found herself sprawled on the floor, staring up at the dark ceiling and wondering how long she’d been there, and where she had been before. She turned her head this way and that and watched the flash of rainbow-colors splash the ceiling as light reflected off the sliver of her Stone. She contemplated the color, the light, the ceiling, the room. And then she decided that thinking about one thing for too long was boring, and she scrambled to her paws and stepped on a shard of Black Opal and yelped.

And suddenly the piece was glowing! The slight pain in her paw-pad forgotten, she brought her curious black nose to the glowing piece of chrysalis, wondering why it was glowing. Did she have some sort of power that made her yelping cause things to glow? She let out another small yelp and looked around, but nothing happened. Shrugging, she nosed the glowing shard, and then began to walk around the room a bit, curious to see all there was to see…

@Czernobog

Cold. Dusty. Wherever he was, it was pretty much the opposite of Eridanus, though it held much less constant panic. After all, he'd yet to see even so much as a sprout, not to mention a shrub or a tree. Czernobog wandered through the damp tunnels of Origin, carefully avoiding any sign of nearing Cetus. Not safe. Might hurt. Might get hurt.

Still, this particular tunnel was drawing to a close - or, well, an opening. A shiny opening. The enormous boar picked up the pace just a touch, odd gait making him appear to dance and shimmy across the floor. Shinies were good! Didn't hat make shinies? He thought she did, anyway; obviously if hat made them they were good. Either way, the massive creature paced his way into the cave ahead, lifting his head to stare, awestruck, at the star-studded ceiling above.

"Preeeeeeetty." The word was drawled out and echoed, something Czernobog had never experienced, making him jump and snort in confusion. A few glances about, and no other gigantic pig materialized, so he cantered on, snoot raised up to gaze at the ceiling, crushing gravel under his hooves. His massive girth made him scrape up against a few of Orion's crumbling buildings, but he didn't seem to notice.

Eventually, he came to the middle of the room, blinking as his gaze was torn from the stars to stare at the blinking rainbow lights that waltzed across the walls. The pig's tail swished back and forth, mesmerized, when a yelp, then another, made him turn on a dime, footsteps heavy and intentionally loud in warning. "Whoooooooooo?"

The bellow crashed through the air, deep and more menacing than the boar probably realized. Still, he stood, snorting and grunting, tail swatting through the air, narrowing his eyes against the darkness... when a glow caught his ire. Black eyes widened, and the pig trotted forward, all aggressiveness gone. A glow! It had to be hat! In his mind, at least.

The creature he stumbled across was most decidedly not his hat. It was much too big and fluffy for one, and it was almost a "Baaaaaaaaby!" With wide eyes and a cheerful grin, full of teeth and spittle, Czernobog sat back heavily on his haunches, luckily not spearing himself full of chrysalis shards, and leaned his massive head down to snort at the pup. "Shiiiiiiiiny."

@Macawi

Exploring the room was quickly growing boring, as there wasn’t much to see there. A lot of emptiness and darkness, and that wasn’t very fun for a baby Macawi. So when the echoing, booming, crashing sound of “Whoooooooooo…” groaned out from the dark, her large ears perked up, and the fur along her spine lifted. Coyotes were extremely skittish but this little coyote had a built-in fear-stopper. In her best imitation of the voice she had just heard, she answered the voice’s question. She dropped her own voice as low and gravelly as she could and said, “Macawiiiiiiiiii…” It didn’t exactly instill fear into her, probably because she knew she was doing it, but it ended up just making her laugh.

She fell onto her side and guffawed loudly, tail wagging. And then there was a giant… thing… hovering over her face. It called her a baby, and then it said the word shiny, and then it snorted and sniffled at her form, which tickled her. She squealed and giggled and laughed, tail wagging with the force of a hurricane and she pawed playfully at the big thing’s snout. Fun! Yes! This, she decided, is what she lived for!

@Czernobog

Macawiiiiiiiiii… Laughter followed the mimic, and Czernobog grinned, fluffy ears pointed up to the starry ceiling, snorting and obviously beyond pleased with himself that the "shiny baby" was happy. The massive beast snuffled gently at the paw placed on his snoot, watery eyes blinking, before the touch made him sneeze, a thunderous sound, one followed by another snuffle as if to check that he hadn't harmed the babe.

He seemed to think for a moment, before he grinned again, letting out a relatively soft bellow of "Maaaaaaac!" The exclamation was punctuated by a tip-tap of heavy hooves as he danced back, bowing low to the floor and wiggling his rump before jumping forward enough to boop the coyote's snout with his own nose, darting back with a squeal, tail whipping from side to side.

It appeared that this was his form of "play."

@Macawi

Macawi continued to giggle and wriggle about happily, full-on laughing when her Pig Friend sneezed. He seemed surprised by the echo-y noise and sniffled at her to make sure she was alright. She sniffled right back at him, unafraid to put her face so close to his. His snout was humongous and sort of prickly and it looked funny. She loved it! He let out another low bellow – this time, the word, ‘Maaaaaaac!’ She stared at him as it rumbled from his chest, and then she laughed some more. For some reason, this creature absolutely delighted her. “Who you?” she asked it, in broken baby speech.

But then he seemed to want to play, so she forgot her question. He backed up, prancing about, and bowed low to the ground, looking at her expectantly. She followed his back and watched as his rump wiggled in the air and laughed some more. Then she got to her paws and pranced along with him, copying his play-moves. Her tail wagged hard behind her as she also play-bowed. She yipped and then charged at him, and then veered to the side at the last moment, spinning around to face him again. “Play!”

... But for some reason the pig didn't want to play. That was fine with Macawi! She gave her new friend a friendly bark as a goodbye, and then took off into Orion, to go exploring!

[Exit Macawi]

@Czernobog