Mjadhi opened his dark brown eyes, only to immediately close them again when the amniotic fluid in his chrysalis flooded them. And thus, his first memory was born — and it was one of pain, the stinging feeling of having liquid in one’s eyes. He squeezed them shut hard, an automatic reaction to the pain, feeling the urge to rub them despite having the ability to do so. He lay, suspended in the chrysalis for quite some time, without trying to move again. All was dark and quiet. The silvery-black orb that made up his egg lay nestled in the Fern Trench in Eridanus, and so far, nothing had come to disturb it…

And then something skittered past the egg, scratched at it for a moment, and then continued scurrying away, until everything was silent again. Whatever the creature had been was irrelevant — most assuredly some small Lesser Gembound. A mouse, perhaps, or a lizard. Now it was gone, but it was enough to pique Mjadhi’s curiosity. What had that noise been? And where had it gone? When those questions bubbled up in his mind, more a sense of simple curiosity than any kind of coherent, worded thought, a feeling began to spread outward through his body, starting at his left thigh and going from there. However, the tingling feeling quickly subsided, and, not knowing any better, the civet decided that such a tingling feeling was a natural occurrence.

There was still this trouble about not being able to open his eyes, though… And suddenly he was feeling like he needed to move his limbs, too.

Words: 266

Dew coalesced on the ferns of Eridanus, the usual warmth having flickered out in the dim-time where most gems slept. All the plantlife was freshly wet that morning, and Dovefeather had to keep shaking her pelt clear of the dampness as she went on her hunt.

The All Mother had opened her eyes to a rustling in the ferns, but as she crept closer, she found nothing at all. Whatever creature had come had since gone, and Dovefeather sighed, shivering off some more droplets from her curled pelt. She was about to move on when she noticed that one of the shadows was too large, too dark-- indeed, it was not a shadow at all.

It appeared to be a stone-- a chrysalis. Dovefeather's whiskers twitched, her ears perking as she tried to listen for any sound of life inside. It looked whole, but whether it was time to hatch or not she had little idea.

So instead, she decided to try out a pawful of magick on the unborn gembound. She did not know that the creature inside was already awake, moments from trying to hatch, but her patience was thin that damp, dew dropped morning.

@Mjadhi

Mjadhi came to the realization that it was time to begin moving his body around. This was instinct working. There had been something out there beyond this darkness. Or maybe it was in the darkness with him. He pushed a paw outward, through the fluid encasing his body, and his little paw pressed against something hard. He brought his other front leg up, and that paw hit the same hard thing. Instinct told him to push against the hard thing that seemed to be holding him in this darkness. His lungs hadn’t quite kicked in yet, which was good, or he might have begun drowning.

He pushed, and he pushed, against what he thought was the darkness. With no way to see inside the chrysalis even had his eyes been open, for hematite is not see-through, he assumed that Darkness had a Shape. He didn’t know enough to be afraid of the Dark, but he didn’t really like it either. So, he pushed, and he kept pushing, and pushing. He pushed until his paws and his legs and his shoulders hurt. And then there was a Crack! and one of his paws went through the Darkness and he felt the whoosh of something go past it, something light and nice-feeling. It was wind, though he didn’t know it yet… Well, he supposed now the only thing to do was to keep pushing!

Words: 234 @Dovefeather

A cracking sound distracted Dovefeather from her attempt to try her magicka. A flick of an ear and she rose, feathers dangling from her ear as she approached. Her vibrant, wheat-colored eyes glistened as she approached, a soft purr starting up in her throat. It had been a long time since she had found the tug in her heart, and a smile traced her muzzle.

"O All Mother, blessed be the child who comes into this harsh world. May whoever lay inside grow strong with your guidance, O All Mother."
Dovefeather breathed the gentle prayer, for her faith had been called into question and tested time and time again, but she never doubted. Not for a moment. Not when she found Owlfeather's stone among the fungus, not when Blackfeather... No. Now wasn't the time to think of such things.

A soft murmur of a voice flickered in her ear, just for a moment. The air carried the smell of a musky, murky swamp and she tried to tell herself she was just imagining it. She closed her eyes and focused on her prayers, summoning her magicks to send away the spirits that coalesced around her like the dew on the leaves.

Slowly, a rainbow began to flicker in the air between her and the hatching gembound, a sign of the creature's future. Dovefeather hesitated, keeping her eyes closed until the babe finally broke free.

@Mjadhi

Mjadhi thought he heard a sound coming from… it couldn’t be inside the Darkness, could it? It sounded so muffled, just like the scratching. Could there possibly be something… other than the Darkness, something associated with his paw which had broken free of it? He wiggled the paw around a little bit, and noticed that it felt colder than the rest of his body, though he didn’t know the word for Cold. Well, he’d gotten one paw out of the Darkness, and that paw felt different now than it had before. So now he wondered what would happen if he got the rest of himself out of the Darkness. And what… what would the Not Darkness be like?

Unfortunately, as hard as he pushed his other paw against the Darkness that he now believed was trapping him, the harder it became to keep pushing. Now nothing was happening! He was stuck! Out of pure instinct, he opened his mouth and sucked in a breath so that he could cry out in fear and frustration — and then he was choking! Thick fluid entered his mouth, went down his lungs, filled his nose. He coughed, sucked in a breath, choked some more, and began panicking. He pushed harder and harder but the Darkness wanted to swallow him! It wanted to choke him to death! He was going to die!

Words: 227 @Dovefeather -- Well, this is... going well, isn't it? XD

Like a solarium, the light around the cat flickered with random, iridescent colors. She sat perfectly still before the stone, waiting for the creature to come forth, but no cracking sounds hit her ears. After a moment, there was a cough-- the unborn babe was choking, trapped inside it's shell.

Pale eyes opened into slits, judging the scene in silence. Her purring continued to hum in her chest, but this was less a sound and more a feeling. Blues and reds flickered in the air around the child, with only thin lines of gold. With a huff, Dovefeather turned her head away from the stone.

"Perhaps the All Mother has decided you are too weak."

She spoke absently to the air, raising back up to her feet. It would be cruel to interrupt the delicate balance of birth, but a wiggling paw caught her attention from the side of the stone. Curiosity pricking at her whiskers, she bounded closer and knelt down to touch her nose to the exposed paw.

"You will have to prove yourself, Child."

Dovefeather whispered to the drowning child, willing the All Mother to give the unborn gembound another chance. As she focused, light snaked from her whiskers on to the exposed paw, slipping into the cracks of the stone. The glow grew stronger and stronger until it lit up the entire innerworking of the shell-- dimly through the liquid, but enough to bring the outside world into the gembound's captivity.

@Mjadhi

Over his own panicked thoughts, Mjadhi noticed that something had just touched the paw outside the Darkness. Already in a frightened state, he automatically jerked his paw back, yanking it back into the Darkness with him — the choking, blinding, thick Darkness. Every attempt to breathe only left him with more fluid in his lungs, and his head was beginning to feel light, his heart thumping. He was absolutely terrified. Now that he had both paws back, he started pushing against the darkness again, screaming and crying inside his head. Luckily, the small hole he had made in his chrysalis, and the cracks that had been caused by its breaking, were now draining the amniotic fluid that was trying to choke him to death.

He had no idea that the Gembound outside his hematite prison was speaking. He could not yet pick apart different sounds and her voice mixed seamlessly with the pulsing of blood in his ears and that sort of hushed ringing that came from having one’s head underwater. He couldn’t even see the dim light coming from the outside world, for his eyes were still firmly shut. But something did change after a second or two. Now, from behind his eyelids, was a dim… something. Something that seemed to breaking through the oppressive, choking Darkness. It looked red, though he didn’t know what Red was, and was only that color because his eyes were closed. The Light was filtered and still relatively dim, but it broke through the hole where his paw had been, and the cracks in the shell, and it gave him something to push against. Something other than Darkness.

Still. All his pushing did little to help him, and he was weakening second after second, slowly drowning… He lifted his up for no particular reason… and felt a small pocket of air that was not covered in goop. Immediately, he opened his maw and gasped in the little bit of air that was trapped now at the top of his chrysalis. It wasn’t much, but the pocket was slowly widening, and it was enough to give him more strength. Now he just had to keep trying!

Words: 361 @Dovefeather -- Feel free to have Dove try to help him, or not. Also, no need to math the post length. I just wrote it until it felt complete and it ended up being almost 400 words. XD

Dovefeather let out a slight mrrow of laughter as the paw withdrew from her touch. The sticky, thick liquid of the stone was trickling out now, and she considered fetching her sister-- Cayenne. She would know how to handle this situation a bit more delicately.

Finding the strange Not-Cat was a bit of a difficult matter. The small feline was sure that her black-furred sibling had left Eridanus on some wander yet again, and tracking down that lemur was more trouble then it was worth. Instead, she focused her gaze on the stone, watching the magical light pour from the crevices as she focused.

On the off chance the babe inside was an amnesiac-- or simply hadn't heard or understood her-- Dovefeather decided to repeat herself.

"Child, you have to prove yourself. Use the strength All Mother has gifted you, and break free."

It was the first of many trials, and she was reluctant to interfere in the birth of another gem. To offer help now would be to hamper and hinder the child for the future; this was why all gems had a trial by fire of breaking free of their own stone. For some it was easier than others.

This one would have quite the difficult life, it seemed. She reached out a paw and tapped lightly on the stone, attempting to encourage the unborn creature to break free without doing all the work for it.

... Unfortunately, she hit the stone harder than she had expected to. Her pawpad ached at the whap and she let out a low hiss, backing off as the chrysalis began to crack where she had hit it.

"All Mother, forgive me,"

She growled through clenched teeth, watching her pawpad swell with a fresh bruise.

@Mjadhi

It was no use! He pushed and pushed and pushed and nothing worked. And now that he had air to breathe, all it resulted in was the sounds of a baby crying out in distress. His calls were high-pitched, much like a kitten mewling, and they had no conscious thought behind them. He cried no words, for he did not know any. He only made an instinctual noise. He was too tired to push anymore, and instead simply lie still, floating in the liquid that was now about halfway drained from his chrysalis. Then something whacked against the side of it, creating a dull thump.

Mjadhi jumped, and jumped again when Dovefeather’s physical contact with the chrysalis caused it to begin cracking even further, and quickly. Suddenly, the fluid which had worked so hard to choke him to death was pouring from his prison as if the Darkness itself was wounded and bleeding. The little civet felt air touch his wet fur where he hadn’t before, and more and more light entered his world. For the first time, he noticed the Outside through the cracks and the paw-sized hole in his ‘egg.’ He blinked at it, though he continued to sit there doing nothing. He was still tired, after all. And he could not yet process what he was seeing. To him, it was all just a jumble of color. And the light hurt his eyes.

He saw a distinct shape through the hole — one that stood out against the other colors. Instinct told him he was looking at another Gembound. He could see its face, its eyes. Automatically, his dorsal crest attempted to rise along his spine and tail, a defense mechanism to make himself look bigger, but he was covered in amniotic fluid and the crest fur was stuck to him. Feeling completely helpless, he kept his eyes fearfully locked onto the wheat-colored eyes of the other Gembound, and froze his body, holding his breath, trying to become invisible.

Words: 334 @Dovefeather

The feline perked up as the newborn's shell finally broke away, her eyes meeting the civet's. Dovefeather could see the fear, plain as day, in the child's eyes. Immediately struck by the almost-feline's appearance, the elder cat's purr grew stronger. A deep rumble strummed away in her chest as she set down her sore paw, blinking her pale eyes slowly at the newborn gembound.

"Welcome to the world, little one,"
She spoke briefly, her half-tail curling around her flank. She bowed her head to the creature, closing her eyes once more. She whispered a gentle prayer to the civet, well aware that he likely had no clue what was going on.

"May the All Mother guide your path."
A piece of the gembound's chrysalis had fallen by her paw and she smiled, briefly, reaching down to it with her nose. She paid little attention to the child, hoping her relaxed attitude would spread to the terrified civet. So new to the world yet with a face tormented by haunting fears, she thought, what a dreadful beginning.

There was one way to keep the demons at bay. She wondered absently if he would understand or care, or simply flee-- he appeared so timid. It was a bit difficult to call upon The All Mother's blessing on to such a dark gem, but slowly the piece of darkness began to let off a warm, orangish glow and she raised her head, casting a smile towards the child.

Dovefeather rose, nudging the glowing shard towards the newborn, before stepping back, assessing him further with her pale, golden eyes.

@Mjadhi