The centaur had stopped picking pieces of the chrysalis out of the water and was now watching the exchange curiously as the Gembound began to move. She had slowly started to move out of the water and onto the bank, keeping a distance so that Batcat could have this interaction to himself. She wanted to see if she had made any progress with what she had been trying to teach him. But as the Gembound became more distressed, it instinctively reacted by expending energy; and its energy was electricity. Static charged across its body as it tried to stand. As it got successfully to its feet, the static became more defensive.

Jupiter didn't have to say anything to Batcat. He had experienced electricity before.

Batcat stood roughly three feet at the shoulder, rearing his head back - an inaudible high pitched screeching bathed the area before him and he was answered immediately with the shape of the creature. They were the same height. His hairline raised and his thick tail puffed out. To appear larger, his wings spread to their full extent. His lips curled back to reveal the glittering rows of sharp bat-like teeth. A chattering began to sound from him. He was coated in an inky, oil-like substance. Should any of the static jump over to him, it would be disgustingly unpleasant for all parties present.

"Whoa, whoa," Jupiter called softly, but her voice went unheard. Her arms were held out half-way and palms upraised, unsure at what point she should intervene. This was very close to becoming a terrible situation. It was bad luck on her part that the Gembound she chose to kick fun at happened to be an electric element.

Chattering more, Batcat was watching too with his large, fluffed ears cupped forward. Waiting too. He could feel the static growing across from his place in the space they occupied, and he dared not move. Not yet.

Jupiter was holding her breath. How well would the newborn understand language?

"Tsst," she called to it, snapping her fingers quietly from her place at its right side. She was a few feet away on the bank, but she was trying desperately not to startle Batcat any further. "He's just loud, okay? He won't do you any harm," Jupiter urged.

I. NASCENCE ......................................................................................................... 10

Did that shadow grow larger? The colt couldn't tell. A small gust of air caused by the large wings lost in the darkness gave him a whiff of all he needed to know. The electric current gives one last, meaningful spark along his flanks before dying down. Its light vanishes, and without its current, the baby feels helpless once more. Clumbsy legs attempt to move. One cloven hoof stomps beside the next as it rotates its shoulders to turn away from the stench of the offending presence. Unfortunately, it just gets its forelocks crossed, and its back legs spread wider to keep its body up. How ridiculous.

"S... Stay away!" it cries in response to the feminine voice.

Seems it had words after all. Childish, hoarse, and with no small amount of courage- though it was terrified beyond its capacity to even move. But it tries. Damp soil displaces under its hooves as it uncrosses its limbs to keep on moving. Away from Batcat and towards who knows where. Long legs lift high and drop onto the earth. The whole thing is rather sad, and it wasn't moving very far at all. Thick joints wobble with each agonizing movement.

Realizing its unfortunate plight, it hesitantly calls over. "I... I can't move." Was it true? That it wasn't going to hurt him? What choice did he have other than to take her word for it. The colt had been through so much already, and that exhaustion is evident in its voice then. "It's hard." Still, it tries to walk away on its creamy, muck-stained stilts.

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Her arms had stayed raised and though she didn't mean to, she was moving slowly closer to her companion. The Gembound's static fizzled away and it tried to move a short distance. Jupiter let it do as it pleased, noting that it did indeed know language. Her attention turned to Batcat, who was following the Gembound with his chattering still. With familiar soft sounds at a safe distance, she got the inky creature to turn her way and read her body with his sonar instead of the newborn kirin.

"Hey, hey," she whispered. "No more static. See?" Her reassurance seemed to calm Batcat slowly, and his wings pulled gently into his side but his fur took its time to settle. The Gembound then called over, stating that it couldn't move. Jupiter lifted her eyes and looked toward it, examining from afar what its plight might be. She thought it had been dead when she first came upon it. Maybe it was still too tired to move itself through the muck of Canis. Even so, her protection of things did not extend to the Gembound of the Cave. She helped her partner on the surface. She guided and tended to creatures above. Life was precious to her elsewhere. The only exception down here was the beast by her side, who still seemed wary of the surroundings.

It was not Jupiter's place to help this creature. She watched as its knobby stilts tiredly tried to move. This is where that stag would appear and offer its help, but if that thing dare show its face now, they would surely fight. Jupiter turned and gently shuffled through the shoreline with her toed feet, searching quietly for any more pieces of washed-up chrysalis. There was one more piece and she knelt down to pick it up, pocketing it in her satchel as her head turned to view the newborn again.

"Find a dry place to rest," she suggested. "Then wash the caked mud from your legs." She touched Batcat on the shoulder gently with a sound that prompted him to move. Batcat turned and with a running jump-start, took a leap to a stalagmite. "Canis is usually pretty empty. You'll be alright to rest here." As she began to head toward the winged shadow in the now-distance, her body turned toward the kirin. There was a silence as she stared.

"Thank you for not choosing to fight him. He does not know chaos. It confuses him, frightens him." Jupiter paused, clutching the string of her bow that was taught on her chest. Simply, its energy was just depleted. She should have killed it anyway. "You lived today."

She turned back toward the perched Batcat that was chattering her way and galloped toward him, his wingflaps echoing against the sound of her footfalls as they exited toward an unknown destination.

— exit Jupiter & Batcat —

I. NASCENCE ......................................................................................................... 11

He couldn't see the interaction going on behind him, but he did hear the movements of the larger creature coming closer. All he wanted was to not get eaten. That would make a perfect first day for him. The feminine voice reassures its companion that the static was gone. Reminding him of it wasn't helping his overall confidence in the situation. The centaur will find the green sunstone clumps to be smooth where they had been cloven from the whole. They are translucent at their edges and pale green at its core- brittle, but more dense than obsidian.

The centaur's words are silently taken to heart. Still, he fumbles with his limbs, and soon enough, topples onto his side. A shoulder smacks into the shallow bank of the pool he had been birthed from and it forces him to scramble back to his feet. He's barely listening while he decides it better to lift his front legs first this time. His rump follows. But he stops moving. That eagerness to flee ceases the moment he chooses to listen with all his attention. A narrow nose turns, and he peers over in the direction of the sound. Getting dry sure sounded nice. Being thanked, however...

The colt shifts his cloven feet uncomfortably. The moist ground squelches under them. Both of them knew it could have easily been killed, but he did not want to acknowledge that. He was still alive, wasnt he?

notes Posted as lituus on accident, but i rolled Other (4) for his legs!
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I. NASCENCE ......................................................................................................... 12

The sound of quickly receding footfall made him want to run too. Run far away from this place. From them. And he attempts to. If only he knew how. What should have been innate to his being failed him instead, and as soon as he gets a few strides in, the foal fumbles on its front legs and right into a mound of bones. There is a clatter with the impact. A wave of bone splinters roll down from the top and fall in a blanket around him.

Suddenly smothered, the colt gives out a startled, high pitched noise. These things were hard. They were sharp. They were all over him and he didn't like it one bit. He feels a surge running through him and it inspires him to stand. But he only fumbles. And fumbles. More bones become dislodged from the top, and the area is drenched in a noisy rattle that deafens his ears.

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I. NASCENCE ......................................................................................................... 13

Nothing could have prepared it for its unforgiving entrance into reality. Not even the dreams that had comforted it in its cycle-long hibernation. White threads of light squeeze through the cracks between the blanched pile of bone and all at once the entire structure seems to come to life. Glowing blue-white electricity stretches across the bone pile in a small radius around the colt as it kicks free from its confines.

Spritely legs kick forward and back, flailing wildly as the bones are shucked off his body. What he doesn't anticipate are the bones rolling into position underneath him- just in time to be tripped over as a back leg returns to the ground. A small femur rolls under him and his rump finds a new seat on the bone and soil behind him. Why was he even trying? If those voices were not there to look after him, what would? No one came here. That's what they said.

More bones roll out under him and his front legs stretch across the ground at awkward angles. No one would find him here. So he was going to have to look after himself.

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I. NASCENCE ......................................................................................................... 14

The sparks fizzle out of him, and again he returns to the silent darkness he had been born into. He'd been given a chance to dry at least, and the bones were somewhat helpful in absorbing him of liquid. But the mud is thick on his legs. Thick and uncomfortable. Exhaustion sets in again, but he refuses to let his eyes close this time. He hangs his head...

Small groups of muscle spasm violently under his skin- his nerves start to get to him, and that isn't helping his racing heart. "Hello?" If anyone was near, they would have come already, wouldn't they? Just like the others had. "H... Hello?" he tries louder. Still, nothing. If only he could cry. Perhaps then the darkness would know the extent of his misery.

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I. NASCENCE ......................................................................................................... 15

Why did everything have to be so difficult? Much as his static gave him the will to be bold, once he was shorn of it, it's as if he energy faded along with it. The electricity was his battery, and with out it... His head nodded. The body jerks violently then goes still. Perhaps he could try to get up again. But if he stayed here... no one would find him. He could dry off. Alone. That wouldn't be so bad...

"Hello?" He was almost begging for their return at this point, though part of him knew not to expect it. Quivering hocks shift beneath him, and once again he's pushing his rump off the ground. Perhaps this time... This time.

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