Words. "Speech." 'Thoughts.'

'What is this?'

There certainly is, as none could deny, a mysterious power to this room, that emanates from the glowing gemstones and crystals that are nestled within the rocks throughout the space. A large and empty enough space to leave a gentle echo as water falls in heavy drips down to the hard floor.

'So this is life?'

In this vast and empty space a new source of light was growing, hidden away in a corner, resting above a collection of moss, a new life was emerging into this strange world. His eye blinked up at the specks of light than seemed to glimmer above him, and for the first time he moved slightly, shuffling from side to side and shifting his wings. What a strange thing this was, this body. His thoughts were not quite together yet, his mind uncertain and struggling to take in all of this new information. His senses were wild with new stimuli that he had never been capable of experiencing before, scents, sights, sounds, the ever so slight touch of a breeze on his feathers and the taste of damp air on his tongue.

At first he just shuffled and shifted his feathers, thinking and gaining a grip on his own strange existence. In place of his left eyes an amber gem gleamed; it was all he had been in the past, a peaceful gemstone with a quiet and beautiful existence, until some strange twist of fate had seen him accidentally touched by magic and given life.

'What a strange and curious thing life is.'

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Decidedly, Eve hated this room.

Polaris was a place that held a lot of grief and bother and things that she didn't have time for. In fact, she'd only really intended to pass by on her way to-.. well, she didn't know yet. The bottom line was: she didn't even want to stay.

But something caught her eye.

A shiny caught her eye.

The crow was definitely not one to pass up ignoring a shiny, of all things. The inky-black bird flew quickly towards the new light source and peered at it quizzically, head tilted.

________________

@Ryuk

Words. "Speech." 'Thoughts.'

It was confusing. He hadn't yet figured out his own existence when a movement caught his attention. His head tilted slightly, and his eye attempted to focus on the creature that had appeared before him. It was a small creature, covered in black feathers much like himself, and perhaps of a similar size and build.

'What is this?'

He watched for a moment longer, and fluffed his feathers. She was like a shadow, small and dark but with one talon that was almost blindingly white, stark against the darkness. He clacked his beak in what he thought might be a greeting.

@Eve

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It was dark, though as her eyes adjusted she could make out a smaller version of Krakarak was clacking it's beak at her. She knew, deep down inside however, that it wasn't Krakarak. He would be screaming by now, if it was. The crow chortled quietly before the silver-white gem on her foot began to shimmer gently.

A small golden orb appeared above Ryuk's head, in her line of sight. Although it was small, the light behind it was strong and cast a soft yellow glow. Eve tilted her head one way, and then the other.

"You hungry?" she croaked simply.

________________

@Ryuk

Words. "Speech." 'Thoughts.'

The dark was all he knew, all he had experience in his brief time of being alive, so it was somewhat of a surprise to see the shimmering toe of the other bird begin to flicker with light before a glowing orb appeared above him. He eye squinted closed and he lifted a wing instantly to shield his face from the glaring light of it. It might have been only small but it offered a brilliant glow and although he couldn't have explained what had made him so sure, he knew deep in his feathers that she had created it.

Hungry? She had asked him a question to be met only with a long moment of silent. Was he hungry? What even was hungry. It took him a while to think it through, the words were new to him but their meaning was known, somewhere in his mind. Or rather, in his gemstone, as though the knowledge was being drawn from the citrine and into his mind his world was becoming slowly clearer, and with it his grasp of language.

"Yes," he said at last with another clack of his beak. "Ryuk is hungry." He stumbled over the words a little, not fully able to make himself heard. He knew he hadn't managed to curl the sound of his name enough, making it sound more like Rook than Ryuk, but he was at least happy to have discovered that he had a name, and a little hopeful that she might give her's in return.

@Eve

"Rock!" the crow repeated happily as she turned to wander off, the small glowing orb following her. "That's a nice name. I'm Eve. It's short for something. I don't know what. Wait here!" she added cheerfully, before she took off into the air again.

She then realised, she had no idea what there was to eat in Polaris. She headed towards the river thoughtfully and glanced inside, peering at the fish. She braced herself, and then she pecked at the water, fishing up something wet and slimy but small, thrashing.

It bled in her beak and she flew back to 'Rock,' bashing the fish off against the wall before she placed it down in front of the baby bird.

@Ryuk

Words. "Speech." 'Thoughts.'

Ryuk tilted his head and watched the bird curiously. "Eve," he harked making a note of the name. It was pretty and simple, and best of all it was an easy sound for his new beak to create. He clacked his beak happily, something about this place and having a new friend made him feel cheerful and being happy made him want to make noise.

As Eve moved away the glowing orb of light went with her and Ryuk slowly lowered his wing, allowing his eye to adjust to the lighting once more. The light allowed him to watch her as she flew across the expanse of darkness and found himself amazed by the movement, even if Eve did make it look a little clumsy and difficult the idea that she had flown, through the air, stunned him.

He turned his head to examine his own wings, stretching them out and moving them up and down as she had done while hopping up and down on the spot. He was saddened to find that he didn't have the strength in his new wings to lift himself up. His sadness didn't last too long, because Eve soon flew back with food for him.

Ryuk clacked his beak happily as the fish was placed down in front of him and snacked it up, swallowing the wet creature whole with great enthusiasm.

"Eve nice!"

@Eve

The crow nodded. "Thank you," the croaked contentedly, nestling down to peer at Ryuk.

"Did you just hatch?" she asked, beginning to idly preen her chest-feathers, keeping an eye on the raven. She'd expected him to be a lot louder - she certainly had, when she first hatched. But then again, this one hadn't just straight-up fallen out of the sky and plummeted somewhere below.

She tilted her head thoughtfully.

Words. "Speech." 'Thoughts.'

He pondered the question for a moment. Hatched? Was that what it was to be called when one emerged from their stone as a life. It seemed to be the right word for such a thing, so he clacked his beak in his agreement.

"Yes. Just hatched" he cawed cheerfully. The female seemed to be a friendly sort of bird, so he considered for a moment whether it would be appropriate to ask a favour of her, but soon decided that he had nothing to loose and should ask anyway.

"Eve teach Ryuk?" he asked, tilting his head imploringly to one side. he wasn't sure how to voice properly what it was that he wanted to learn, so instead he tried to flap his wings in the way she had done. he wanted to learn how to fly. He wanted Eve to show him how.

@Eve

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Eve glanced at Ryuk for a moment, head tilting. She was reminded of Krakarak, somewhat, who offered to teach her in the Art of Loud - but something told her that the little corvid wasn't looking for directions to be the loudest thing to walk the caves.

Which, honestly, she prefered. That title was hers and only hers.

"You want to learn to fly? I couldn't do it for a while after I hatched, but I was pretty hurt. I've seen some others born with their flight feathers, though." The crow leaned over to gently nudge at Ryuk's wings, checking his feathers. "I can teach you a lot of stuff, you jsut need to ask, but if you don't have your feathers in then you gotta wait."

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@Ryuk