OOC: This is gonna be short because my muse is short and Blue is still shy. Sorry guys.

Blue sat and looked between the two Gembound. She noticed with her keen sense of awareness that they looked... vaguely similar. Of course, one was bigger and stockier and the other was smaller and thinner and looked sort of... too tall. But there was something very "same-like" between them. Blue looked nothing like either of them, and that kind of confused her, because then she started wondering what she was and why she was so different from them.

Whatever conversation the two wolves may or may not have been having, Blue was totally out of it, too focused on her inner thoughts at that point.

Talking was unnecessary most of the time, he deemed, and he enjoyed listening to the fluctuations in others much more than making noise himself. The voices of each person he had met had been so different, filled with varying emotions and varying tones. Some had pretty voices - like the she he met before - while others... well. He supposed the two in front of him had alright voices.

And these two with the 'alright' voices wanted him to throw his voice into the mix, too. He visually seemed hesitant, unwilling to speak even when she turned her attention to him.

Well. She was pretty.

He did his very best to remember how the Wolf-that-was-not-a-Wolf handled the question. The first words he had heard when he was born were the same ones the girl asked now: 'What's your name?' It seemed like an important question to those he had met thus far. And when the Wolf-that-was-not-a-wolf asked it...

"I am Wolf." He concluded, tilting his head as he pulled his eyes away from the pretty wol - Arkael - and looking to... Blue. Making a conscious effort to use their names instead of whatever moniker he selected for them, he answered the next question for himself: "Mmm... yes."

Was he headed somewhere? Of course.

Did he know where that 'somewhere' was?

He gave a grin.

Not really. But curiosity killed... well, nobody he knew of. And the only way that he would ever learn anything was by exploring. He was very curious of what was within the caverns and the tunnels because he felt that out there were answers to all the things he wondered. … Somewhere. He would know where once he got there.

"She is..." His voice trailed off, his eyes flickering away as he thought about the words he had collected and heard...

She (Blue) wasn't hungry, and she didn't seem upset anymore...

"Alone?" He asked, peering at the distracted fur-rock and attempting to reclaim her attention. She needn't get so lost in her thoughts when there were folks around. Reflection was best spent in solitude, not while there was still stuff to learn, to interact with, to know right here, right now. Or so he thought anyway.

"Speech" Thoughts

"Wolf?" Arkrael repeated, finding the name positively strange. She was a wolf. She didn't know why she knew, but she did. It was what she was. So for this strange lanky creature to call himself wolf just seemed seriously odd to her. Shaking her head from her own thoughts she turned her multi-colored eyes towards Blue once again with a small friendly smile. She tilted her head as she studdied the black fur covered creature and pondered over Wolf's response on Blue. Arkrael didn't like being alone, even if that time had only been for however long it has been now since Tamelyn went on her exploration.

"Hey, lost?" She inquired as she once again reached out a paw and made a scratching motion towards her. Her paw just barely brushed against Blue's arm before she set her paw back down and rested her head atop her legs. Her ears were still perked right towards blue, listening closely and hoping for a response from the rather quiet creature. Wolf had very little words to say, so she assumed he just wasn't able to speak as much as she was. She would pester him about that later, but for now she wanted to ease the little gorilla's fears of her.

There were an awful lot of words and questions going around, and as much as Blue loved learning things, she felt a little overwhelmed. The words alone and lost caught the most of her attention, though, and she tried to focus her brain enough to a) understand what was being said and b) respond. With time, these sorts of things would come easier, but having just been “born” not too long ago it was difficult for her to get things still. The fact that the female wolf thing had brushed her arm didn’t bother her so much now that she had something to focus on.

“Alone,” she repeated. “Blue is… not alone. She is… with you.” She looked between the two of them and pulled her lips back away from her teeth in a smile. Wolves did this to show aggression, but gorillas used this gesture to show friendliness. It’s not as though she knew how wolves worked, anyways. “Lost,” she continued, pondering the word. Was she lost? She didn’t think so. To be lost meant that you had to be going somewhere in particular first. And while she had wanted to explore, Blue didn’t think she was… trying to be anywhere specific. “No, not lost. Not going anywhere.” She hoped she had answered their questions correctly, if only for her own peace of mind. Talking was hard.

He wasn't completely sure why he smiled a little, but he did. Something about the roc - Blue saying that she was not alone because she was with the two wolves evoked the expression. Perhaps it was the sentiment - the sentiment was the meaning without the meaning, you see. It was like having ears even when nobody saw them. Or maybe it was because the dark-thing smiled when she said it. She looked a little more... wolf-like when she smiled. Person-like and less rock-like.

There was much to being a canine than just the movement of lips. It was the placement of body, the intensity in eyes. It was often said that crinkles around the eyes were the differentiating factor in sincere and insincere smiles. Blue's smile, shy as it was and a little hesitant, was a genuine smile. He could tell, even being as young as he was. She looked quite lovely when she relaxed, the scent of fearfulness and the tension of an anxious body receding.

She seemed... natural. More natural even when she was wrapped up in a contemplative thought. He listened to her response. 'Not lost, because not going anywhere to begin with' – that's what she meant, right? He thought on it, too, debating if it made sense before coming to the conclusion that it did. One did have to have a destination, and one did have to be trying to get there, and one did have to not know how to get there to be lost. Otherwise, everyone would always be lost all the time.

He understood.

And he understood Arkrael was asking all the questions and getting all the answers in this encounter between the three. Turnabout was fair play.

"Did you..." He stepped a little closer, eying the rock plopped squarely on her chest. Looking at it before glancing to the gem on Blue's hand (the one that the wolf had made such a fuss about before) he asked something that had bothered him for quite sometime. Every creature he had met thus far, every one of them...

"Come from that?" He asked, referring to her stone.

Ooc; posting on phone so no fancy table or nothing

Arkrael tilted Her head as Blue spoke. Well she definitely had a point of not being lost seeing as she had no destination. She sat up to rest on her haunches. Her gaze moved down the tunnel that she assumed Blue had wandered out of. It carried strange smells. An eerie sensation washed down her spine and strangely enough it brought a deep curiosity into her and she made note in her memory banks to one day go venturing into the area.

Shaking off her thoughts Arkrael turned her focus to Wolf as he stepped closer and began to speak. Her gaze swept down to the gem upon her chest as she brought her paw up to rest against the cool, smooth surface. "I think I did," she responded thoughtfully as she thought back on the many shards that littered the ground where she had awoken at. She would still have a few of them, but the rock creature had stolen them all. It brought a bitter taste in her mouth and she popped her jowls.

With a quiet sigh she shook it off and finally looked wolf over. "what about you? Do you have one? she still couldn't find even the smallest glimmer of a stone anywhere on him. She looked to Blue again studying the stone upon her hand. Again she looked to Wolf, pressing her ears forward as she searched for it. Maybe if she couldn't see it, perhaps she could feel it? She would try in a bit, but first she would wait for Wolf's attention.

Blue noticed the way the male wolf creature was now staring at her – her stone specifically. The one on her hand that she already loved so much. He seemed to be searching for the right words to say, and she kept her eyes on him out of curiosity. Something about the male clicked with her a lot more than the female. The male was quieter, more thoughtful – as in, he had more thoughts. ”Did you… come from that?” he asked eventually, motioning towards the blue-and-white stone on her hand. Blue knew instantly that, yes, she had. Well, she hadn’t come from the one on her hand, but… she’d come from the shattered pieces of her egg-thing.

“Yes, Blue came from this,” she replied, pointing to the stone on the back of her hand. “But… a bigger one.” Here, she pulled her long arms out in front of her, stretching them as far as they would go, and tried to make a circular shape with them, like she was giving an invisible Gembound a hug. “One like this! Big!” She shuddered as she remembered how difficult it had been for her to break out of her shell. What would have happened if her Magic had failed her? Would she have been stuck there? Forever?

Now, this was interesting. She could clearly see the female’s stone, too. But the female was right to search for the male’s. Blue couldn’t see a stone or a gem anywhere on his tall, lean frame. She leaned her face towards him, scrunching her eyebrows. She attempted to reach her hands out and begin sifting through his fur, trying to find the stone he must have. Did he not have one? Where was it?

He pursed his lips, examining one and then the other quietly as the girls spoke and moved. They had come from homes similar to the stones now embedded in their body. Did that mean the stones were their connection to the place they came from? What was the stone for each of them? Why wasn't it in the same place? Why were the stones different colours?

He could have rattled off many more questions, but Arkrael had an excellent question of her own.

Did he have one?

Frowning, his eyes fell to his small paws and he thought about it. He had been moving and walking around for quite some time. He had hunted and he had met so many wolves and... He hadn't seen a gem anything like theirs on himself, anywhere. Even his reflection in the water hadn't shown a sparkling pretty. With a troubled look, he shook his head. "I don't..." He began, his voice trailing off to quietly include the 'I don't think I do.'

It wasn't a surprise that he was startled when he felt Blue's hands wade through his hair. But, once the momentary shock was overcame he submitted to her searching hands placidly enough. With a deeper frown he asked, "Can you find it?" Throwing a glance to Arkrael, he included her in this search for his rock. Could she see it?

"Speech" Thoughts

Arkrael pushed herself up to sit on her haunches as she watched Blue move forward to search through Wolf's fur. It seemed unusual that Blue was having no luck in finding it. Arkrael's ears perked up when Wolf cast a glance towards her with a questioning gaze. Could she find it? She sure would try that's for sure. She scooted a little closer to him with a little sniff at his pelt before she closed her eyes. She had been practicing here and there when she could, but maybe she would have some good luck.

Arkrael sat completely still as she concentrated on using her magic. It started slowly at first, the gentle vibration within her chest from her stone soon followed by it's soft humming. It sent a pleasant chill down her spine to feel her magic starting to work. The vibrating of her stone intensified and the humming seemed to grow a bit louder. Arkrael's eyes popped open instantly as a wide grin curled the edges of her muzzle. She could feel them! Both of them. The stone upon Blue's hand tugged at her, giving it's presence to her. She was the one she had first sensed when she had came upon the tunnel.

The second pull seemed to be much stronger than Blue's. If only for the fact Arkrael now sat closer to Wolf. She moved without talking at first, finding her way easily towards Wolf's Sternum and pushed her muzzle into his fur and nuzzled at it for a moment as if to make sure it was really there. She growled lightly as she felt the vibrations of Wolf's stone as it called out to her from the use of her magic. "It's here," She chimed happily as her tail began to thump against the ground. It wasn't that he didn't have one! He just had one that wasn't visible! It was exciting to learn. Opening all kinds of new ideas for ARkrael to think about. She wondered if there would be more like him. Where their pretty stones were located within them instead of in view.

Arkrael pulled back from Wolf and gave him a big grin, happy to have helped in finding his stone. He had acted like he hadn't know, which she guessed was probably likely considering where the stone had attached itself within Wolf's body. She cast a happy, excited look to Blue, before looking at Wolf eager to hear his response to her finding it.

Blue ignored it when she felt the male jump at her touch. When he didn’t shy away, she took it as a sign to continue, especially when he then asked if she could find it. Now she was determined. She moved around to his other side and began sifting through that fur, as well, like she was grooming another gorilla, almost. Alas, she could not find it, and eventually sat back in disappointment. “Blue not find it. Not know where it is. You have none, maybe? Sad…” It was sad, to her. It was sad that maybe this boy didn’t have a shiny, pretty stone like she and the other female did.

As she sat there, feeling a little bad for the male, the girl beside her suddenly went rigid, as if concentrating hard. Blue studied her curiously, wondering what on Earth she could be doing. She clearly wasn’t actually searching for the stone without touching the boy… was she? She looked like maybe she had been turned to stone, stuck forever in a hard sitting position. Blue was actually about to poke her experimentally, and then yanked her finger away when the girl pressed her muzzle into the male’s fur and then said, ”It’s here!”

Here? Where? Blue didn’t see anything? Wait… Did she mean it was… under the skin? The gorilla shuddered at the thought. She looked up at the boy, asking, “Does it hurt? Your pretty? Can you feel it? Was she right?” Blue couldn’t imagine having her stone embedded under the skin of her hand! That thought alone sent gross hand-deforming imaged to her head. She wondered what her hand would look like if it were like that, skin bulging grotesquely to make room for the stone. Of course, Saudade’s stone wasn’t like that at all, but how was she to know that?