Grishia had gone wandering.

She hadn't actually meant to leave Canis. And her mother's familiar, Omen, was shadowing her, yelling in incoherent, haunting syllables from time to time. But a flickering something off ahead had drawn Grishia's eye.

She waddled, like any toddler, but with an additional weight to her steps: first, the heart in her chest--her gemstone--was as yet far too large. It slowed her, so that she had to pause periodically for breath. And the staff she bore was far too tall: she had to pause frequently to readjust her grip on it so that it didn't drag, often to the point of carrying it sideways before her, or slung over a shoulder rather awkwardly.

But she did press forward, farther and farther from home, in an attempt to see the... the thing, more closely.

It was shimmering, like a hole in the air! Shining, and pretty. And beyond it was the waterfall, careening liquid and spray, its gentle roar somehow soothing.

The fungus wreathing the crystal around her made her retreat with wrinkled nose (it stank, even for her) but the Rift?

She drew close, her eyes wide, as if drawn to it--staring.

"...Hello?" she said at last, very softly.

Grishia is claiming her anniversary Rift item!

Grishia's "Hello?" bounces harmlessly off the shimmering veil's face, and is met with silence at first. An awkward silence, long enough to make one potentially think that there's nothing to be gleaned from this Rift at all—

Its surface warps more sharply, undulating as it dispenses both a brief smattering of noise— the disturbed "ah!" of someone having dropped something— and a well-made and cared for silken pouch onto the ground in front of the gnoll-cub.

Soft as the glittering, midnight blue fabric is, it is clearly durable; the cinch at its top was made with looping around a belt in mind, and its bottom reinforced with extra layers of cloth to keep it upright on any surface. Within the purse lies a number of coins and a wooden toy made in the likeness of some sort of a small, squat lizard. The latter of the items was well loved with how the sides of its body were worn smooth.

@Grishia

She blinked, dropping into her rump in some surprise. A pouch-! Blinking again, she scrambled up to grab it, her paws clutching the soft fabric with urgency at first, as if afraid it might be taken away as quickly as it'd come.

When it didn't--when the rift's hum subsided--she loosened her grip to look it over.

Glittering midnight blue. Cinched, and reinforced. She opened it carefully, gray eyes wide. Within--the coins. And a toy.

She drew the little wooden lizard out, holding it cupped in her paws. Her face took on an expression of amazement. Look at it! she thought, awed. It was small, beautiful and well-loved. To her, this was the real gift. She didn't know what it was, why it was in there--but it held meaning.

She would cherish it.

...And she'd keep the pouch it came in, too.

exit!