Awareness grew slowly. Entombed in her crystalline shell, the golden filly slumbered with spindly knees tucked high against her glowing moonstone. Once, twice her close eyelids tighter, fighting instinctively to hold onto that last bit of peaceful, dreamless slumber. Silent, she hunkers further in her chrysalis, pulling in limbs she did not yet know how to use but it was to no avail.

Abruptly she realized a manner of things. Firstly, that she was in-dark. In-dark was not necessarily bad. In-dark felt like it could be safe. However, she couldn't move. And can't-move was bad. So bad that her hind legs jerked swiftly in reflex, shattering the chrysalis. Inelegantly the golden child spilled onto the floor, rolling halfway onto her back in the process, leaving her tiny limbs to wave through the air aimlessly until she righted herself. Panicked now, May immediately attempts to stand, thrusting wobbly extremities out in front of her and staggering about like a drunken sailor, not yet in control.

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The crow did not come to Orion often.

For a creature who sure did like shiny (and most times, useless) objects - she sure did hate going into what most would consider, the best place to find such things. Hell - they were literally on the ceiling practically waiting for the day a tiny bird would simply take one away - and yet the thought never did occur to Eve.

Perhaps she despised the place she had hatched? Perhaps she cringed at the memory of her simply sliding out and then falling onto the ground, barely even able to open her eyes? Regardless, she sat on the armrest of the throne with a frown. Her original intention was to visit Dark; and yet the owl was nowhere in sight.

But something else was - not a shiny-- well, yes, a shiny - or else it wouldn't have caught her eye in the first place, but she immediately marked it down as a chrysalis. Not an unfamiliar sight to her now - Eosphoros, Ryuk and Umber had all came out of them when she stumbled across them.

She was in no hurry, however, to make her way over to the splintering rock. With a mind elsewhere (namely, the onyx stone below her nest) she flew over to the ground near the stone prison, very nearly being hit in the face by an emerging hoof.

Half-stunned and half-amused, she squawked. "You alright there, kid?"

@Maeve

May's tiny heartbeat raced, knocking unsteadily against her ribs as she fought ingrained panic. Wide eyes cast over the area around her without really seeing anything until something moved. Halfway through the process of trying to stand up, she innately recoils from the strange thing and ends up sitting rather much like a dog. This unusual position seems to interrupt her mad scrambling, and her attention shifts from attempting to stand to investigating her companion. Ears, much too large for the face they appeared above, prick uncertainly forward as the move-thing makes noise.

On closer inspection, the move thing is small and hard to see in the dark except for the glimmer of her eyes and one bright white toe. Tiny nostrils flare, instinctively trying to smell this thing. She has no idea what she is smelling for only that it might decide whether run or not-run. Nothing seems any more alarming than the rest of the world so far, so May decides to try and decipher the noise that it had made a moment ago. There had been a lot of sounds, but all she could remember at this point was the last one.

Wrinkling her muzzle with the effort to form the word, she attempts to reply in kind, not yet sure why she's doing so other than that this tiny thing seems to want something from her. "Kid?"

@Eve

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"At least you aren't deaf," the crow rather immediately replied, twisting her head down to lift a foot, scratching the back of her head. "A kid is what you are, currently. Freshly born. Just-outta-the-rock." the bird's head tilted.

"I'm Eve," came the squawking voice. The foot lowered and the crow hobbled forth to peer at the equine, almost critically. She had taken an abrupt liking to the newly-emerged, though not as much as a certain boar had. She croaked slightly then looked around. "I've met things like you before- though I forget what they're called. I'm sure there's something for you to eat, somewhere."

And with that the crow hobbled off without a word. She looked left and she looked right but not once did she actually turn around to make sure Maeve had somehow managed to injure herself. Instead, the crow headed towards a rock.

Pushing it over with her beak, the crow began hissing and biting at a particularly wriggling worm. It escaped her maw several times before she finally managed to get an actual grip on it - to which she trudged back to the pony with the worm in beak - offering it to her almost absent-mindedly.

@Maeve

maeve

It seemed for a moment that she had done what the move-thing wanted. It started making noise again, lots of it and May quickly changed it's name to noise-thing instead. Even though she doesn't understand much of it. Slightly more confident now, the filly relaxes slightly, drawing back and attempting to both listen to the move-thing and assemble her legs beneath her. Somewhere in the mix, she hears a word that sparks a growling in her stomach. Eat? Maybe eat will make her tummy be quite. Just as she gets all four corners somewhat stabilized - shaking only a little bit - her companion starts ambling away.

Not wanting to be left alone, she manages to shuffle forward. Something akin to a squeak and a garble of a name makes it out of her lips and her pace doubles as the move-thing gets far enough away that she's nearly invisible. "Imeve! Back!" A thread of panic races through her voice and she attempts to toddle faster.

However, the crow hops back and May relaxes. As the tiny bird comes closer, her charcoal muzzle is extended in an instinctual form of greeting. The wriggling worm comes as a surprise and she recoils, the velvet skin of her nose wrinkling. She shakes her head and replies a bit more tentatively, questioning the judgement of Eve. This didn't seem like food at all. "Eat?"

@Eve

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There was a short pause while the crow dug around the rock. "Don't worry, I'm comin' back, came the squawks as she picked up the worm. Her heart sank somewhat as the equine tried to nuzzle her as she came closer.

And then she recoiled. Eve took a quick mental note as she tilted her head back and swallowed the worm down. Food was food for her - she prefered the scraps of carrion Dragon or Ghanyarah would leave around but insects did fine when starvation loomed. "That's okay," she chirped. "We don't all eat the same things. We can find you other stuff."

The crow looked around and quickly realised she had no clue what other things ate. She didn't particularly care for the diets of others, after all. She lifted one foot, moonstone talon gleaming, as she pecked at where a nail used to be. "Tal'at eats fruit. Do you want fruit?"

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maeve

The golden filly watches curiously as Eve swallows the worm, a little bit amazed that anyone would want to eat anything like the wriggly creature. Something about the notion of putting anything wriggly in her mouth made her skin crawl and her mouth go dry. Suddenly aware of this odd feeling on her tongue, she scrapes it against the tiny nubs of teeth and in doing so realizes how very alien one's own mouth can feel.

Eve begins to make percussive noises again and the filly tears herself away from her explorations to pay attention, though not much context makes it through to her. It seems, though, that they should be looking for something. Maybe something that looks like food. Following Eve's lead, the filly meanders a bit, searching equally with her muzzle and her eyes for anything that seems appetizing. Nothing in the immediate, largely rocky vicinity fits and she returns her attention to the small crow with nothing to show for her efforts save a tiny dirt smudge in the center of her nose.

However, another word is introduced that sounds appealing to May's ears and she immediately parrots it. "Fruit?" Flicking the tiny nub of her tail against her haunches in glee at the sound of the word, she continues while bobbing her head. "Eat fruit."

@Eve

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The crow squawked happily. "Fruit, yeah. Not tangy enough for my tastes but I know Tal'at eats it. I don't think you can get any here," she hobbles along, keeping to Maeve's side before she eventually seems to decide to unfold her wings and flutter her way to the crown of the horse's head.

Her talons are sharp; though she seems to do a decent job of not digging them into her skin. She looked around, briefly. "There's not much here other than bugs, rats and shinies. I have a feeling that if you don't like bugs you won't like rats either - and who can blame you. Scrawny little things, barely any meat on 'em. I like deers. But there's fruit in Eridanus we can find for you, like uh... well, I only know that they grow in trees," the crow rambled, perhaps more to herself rather than actually speaking to Maeve. A short croak escaped the crow's throat, the sound was almost thoughtful.

"..Yeah. It's weird, I think that's the only place with fruit. We're growing some in Cetus, I think, but that doesn't naturally have fruit. I don't know - but we can't have you starve now, can we?" the crow gently thumped her foot - the one without a gemstone - off the top of May's head with a hollow sigh.

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@Maeve

maeve

She can't help but startle when her tiny bird friend suddenly doubles in size and makes a beeline for her head. As a reflex she starts trying to back pedal, but lacks the coordination and only stumbles on a rock, allowing Eve more than enough time to settle quite lightly on her poll. When no pain is immediately forthcoming, May relaxes a tiny bit although she can practically hear the percussive sound of her heart beat in her ears.

At first May lowers her head slightly, but the bird just continues rambling in her croaky sort of voice. Both oversized ears flick near constantly until at last she obeys instinct and attempts a weak sort of shake to try and dislodge the bird atop her head. However, she does so clumsily, most likely not even disrupting the bird's speech.

@Eve

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The crow squawked mid-sentance and fell to the ground mid-sentance with a disgruntled croak. Slowly she lifted herself back up onto her talons and shook her head roughly. "Watch it," she said simply, adjusting her wings. "We'll find you some food."

The crow started to hop away, talons clacking against the ground quietly. She was apparently deciding not to sit on the equine's head again. "It's not far, y'know. Just keep up." Eve looked around briefly before she started heading off towards tunnel I.

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(sorry for the wait i didn't get tagged until now!
we can start a new thread in eridanus if you want or we can continue here for a bit)
@Maeve