Dahlia

If you're going through hell keep going

It all seemed to have begun with a soft cracking noise.

Initially came her hind-legs, which thrust themselves outward, busting through the warm, sparkling exterior and therefore sending tiny shards whooshing through the air. From beneath the freshly created hole of the chrystalis she could just manage to hear the soft sloshing of what sounded like... a liquid of sorts. Ears she didn't necessarily know were even existent among her new features pricked upward, her awakening interest piqued. Her eyes fluttered open, and in the reflection of her chrystalis she found that her visionaries were an odd pink in colour. Everything seemed so new, and it was because everything very evidently was indeed new to her emerging senses. From the preliminarily slick tip of her tail to the array of stalactites crusted into the ceiling, this definitely was not what the clouded leopard had accommodated to. Yet, then again, she hadn't really accommodated to anything at this point in time: she had only just begun her entrance into the mystifying world.

With another few shattering cracks she swatted open the chrystalis, the encasement falling away to reveal a tiny figurine whose pelt was comprised of grays and blacks. Uttering an unrecognizable sound the clouded leopard reared back, before pushing herself upwind to burst out from the thing. Ah! At last, she was free of her development stage. It felt... oddly relaxing, in a way, to be free of the cocoonish covering. Her pink visionaries narrowed once things had formed into one, an attempt at taking in her rather perplexing surroundings - great, variously coloured stones jutted out from the rocky gray flooring, each one feet upon feet high. It was all rather imposing, the leopard had to admit, all the while surprisingly intimidating. But she was free, that was all that mattered in these few first moments of life.

At first the noises that rumbled from within her pharynx were incoherent mumbles, but they soon then escalated themselves into a reasonable question, her voice travelling like a bat's echolocation throughout the cavern. "Is there... Is there anyone else in here?"

Travelling in pursuit of expertise had sent him down many paths. From the chilling waterfall cavern known as home, to mist-filled swamp, to verdant paradises—distinctive images, but all were a tiny section in the scrapbook of his mind, many pages he was unaware of yet to be filled. This picture he'd stumbled into was certainly new, one indiscernible to a creature accustomed to quick thought and action. Wherever he cast his gaze, a jumble of murky-eyed reflections stared back from crystal towers' faces. Whatever entrance he'd entered from had been concealed in the wake of his wandering, and the exits were equally hidden amongst the numerous iguana duplicates.

Realization of his predicament had halted his steps briefly before the fear had settled in. Then he'd went on the move again, pace quickened, only to veer back around to where he'd first stopped. A maze, a puzzle he possessed little desire to solve. The urge burned to fight his way out, but obnoxiously cold reason stayed his magic; although his flame was freshly undampened, it'd be useless in its current state against this world of mirrors. And no other tools beside that, the hard and blundering way remained: contemplation of the surroundings.

It was while he despaired his teacher never warning him of such hazards that a soft sound rang through the cavern. Merged words gave away that it was of someone and not something, though Fahl could not distinguish the message from the fading murmur. Whatever it was, the indication of life lifted his head to gaze up at the ceiling. Mouth parted, eager response ready, but clamped shut at the twinge of agony within his throat.

Not too fast. He'd forgotten his heavy tongue now paired with another difficulty, a harsh sacrifice for stubbornly driving himself to greater strength. This time he swallowed and croaked a solitary word, hoping it would carry.

"Hello?"

@Dahlia

Dahlia

If you're going through hell keep going

Her ears flicked forward as she caught the unfamiliar voice reverberating throughout the cavern. With just the teeniest of gasps she twirled clumsily around, and it took all the clouded leopard had not to accidentally stumble over her own paws. Her eyes widened as she absorbed in her surroundings. Crystals. There were crystals everywhere. In front of her, behind her, to the left and to the right of her, and each and every one of them seemed to practically collaborate together to split the new Gembound's features into millions of fragments. Her nose screwed up and she tilted her head, pausing in the moment to take in her environment more closely, pausing in the moment to ignore the voice that had called out to her. Uh. Wh.... Where was she, exactly? No, like, literally. Every corner she looked there were just more of those shards of her reflection, her pinkish eyes glimmering among the multicolored stones' surfaces. "Huh." Oh! Her tail flipped the air as she twirled around to look for the voice that had piped up, eyes sustaining those wide positions of theirs. "Uhm, w-who is th-there?" The words seemed to come almost naturally to her, in a way. Perhaps it was all because of the knowledge she had preliminarily stored in her equally preliminarily stressed brain. "The name is..." What was her name, exactly? Since she had hatched she hadn't thought to decide, but now that she was being faced with the challenge of introducing herself to another being it seemed she'd have to create one, inevitably.

Y'know what? I think I'll leave that choice a blank slate for now. Yeah, sounded good. What she needed to have her main focus on right now, anyway, was figuring her way out of here. And she had better do so without getting her own feet literally, physically tangled with one another. Gahhhhh.

[url=/member.php?action=profile&uid=1691]@Fahl/url]

For a brief moment only his own voice could be heard echoing within the cavern. Distaste clenched jaw and eyes alike at the experience. Once he'd only dreaded stilted delivery—now a rasp curled itself around each syllable. The complication had been expected, considering the fiery sensation that lined his throat with each deep breath, but seclusion had insulated him from the full consequences of his actions. Although he would never have been the best at engaging in pleasant conversation, the knowledge was disheartening. Still, he listened for an answer, prepared to continue speaking no matter how brokenly.

When it came, the strain was not as much. "I'm Fahl." The name sprang off his tongue, comforting in its simplicity. Thank goodness for something he often recalled as having been blurted in haste. He would have asked for one in return if not for the fact the stranger had seemingly done so. The introduction had trailed off, but the iguana assumed that perhaps the final word had been too soft to catch.

As he wondered what next to say, Fahl strode forward amongst the crystals, head on a constant swivel. There had to be some way out of here. He just needed to look closely.

The iguana circled the same way thrice before coming across a deviation from the reflections prowling alongside him. A gap revealed another direction, small enough to be overlooked and big enough to be squeezed into. Crystals continued to line the way.

"Where are you?" Fahl thought of bashing his head against one of the glinting pillars of rock. If he couldn't determine his location, why would this Gembound know any better. "You see any-" Pain hitched in his throat. "Anything different?"

@Dahlia