:: our endings happ||ened at dawn ::

The throne room was silent. In the past few cycles, it had been collecting dust, seemingly abandoned even by those that once ruled Orion with a vicious penchant to torture. The dull ruins seemed overshadowed by the glistening starlight above, constant and beautiful to behold. Indeed, it was as though every gem had forgotten about the ruins of the throne.

Many gembounds had been born here. So many families had come and gone, chased out or forced in, whispering of safety and protection. Dried blood stained the stone floor, littered with dozens of shards from the babies who had come to life here. It was a constant cycle of power, groups of gembounds vying for their right to royalty.

Now, only one stone remained, nestled behind the throne for safety. It had been forgotten, having not hatched along side of a similar stone cycles ago. As the time passed, it appeared that the chrysalis had been lost; hope abandoned.

The caves moved on. Violence came in new ways, in different places, and once the hatred had grown so strong, everything fell away to silence. For what seemed like a cycle, nothing moved. No one came by, no one noticed, as the tiny stone grew just a bit more, maturing finally.

Miles away, where the stars faded into a brilliant blue-green sky, the stillness of the world had finally broken away into earth-shattering agony. A bratty child and his father-- a tyrant known all across the caves-- and a hungry wolf, seeking vengeance, clashed together like lightning. The battle could be heard all across the cyan realm, shaking the core of the caves so strongly that it seemed like finally the world would break apart.

At the last moment, a whisper of a thought ran through the wind, twisting down the tunnels, seeking a long lost brother. I'm coming, the tyrant cried. The caves looked upon the dying father and his son, solemn and silent.

The father would never find his brother.

I'm coming, Wyn! Hold on!

Fate was simply too cruel.

It was like coming out of a dream. The tiny soul could hear his brother, racing towards him. The very air felt strange, like moving through a fog. He was flying, flying, flying...

Everything suddenly crashed around him. A pain seared through the child's body, blinking open purple eyes. The starlight above was cutting through a single crack in the shadow-casting wall, right on to his face.

Squinting, the newly conscious creature looked around, trying to stand. Part of the throne had broken and fallen on to the chrysalis, shattering it. The stone was pinning him down, a hint of blood trickling from his leg.





Immediately the child knew he had to escape.

"Vazi!" The hybrid cried the only word, the only name, it knew. "Vazi!!"

There was something solemn about Orion now. To Eve, it was no longer a place of birth and exploration, but somewhere where the air was heavy with the rancid scent of blood and carrion, where countless had died. She wanted to clean the ground, the abandoned buildings, the throne. Even the stars on the ceiling seemed to be stained crimson. Even just being in this place made her feel that her beak was dripping with rot, that sticky scarlet liquid was stuck to her feathers - she had preened herself endlessly since arriving. She hadn't intended to stay long. She'd so much rather be in Pisces where she could barely fly than stay here. She stood on a flat roof of a building near the throne. She did not turn at the sound of the great monument breaking and shattering whatever was under it like glass - things breaking and crumbling were not an uncommon thing in the derilict city. Her talon raised with the intention of cleaning, when something did catch her attention. The sound of a child wailing for someone, a Vazi, but Eve did not know the name. She looked left and right before she took to the air, inky-black wings fluttering with ease through Orion. She first landed on the throne itself, looking down. There was definitely a something there; small and frail. She floated down further onto the ground next to it and if it weren't for the sound of air shifting under her wings she may have gone unnoticed. It was only now that she actually noticed the rock holding down the gembound's leg. She did not speak - not yet - as she charged forth into the rock. It hurt, as the crow charged head-first into the rock and was blasted back a few yards. She ruffles her feathers and tried once more, this time by the shoulder and the rock budged off the gembound's leg. There was blood. She shifted and looked around for something, anything, but she saw nothing. "It's okay," she chirped. "You're okay." The crow now hobbled towards the deer-sheep's face, leaning in to nudge his snout with her beak. table code © rasta 2015

@Wynter

WYNTER HASIRA And when it's over, we can be together

I'll never be afraid to die again, I'll always be there for you my friend

Although he heard not the sound of hooves on stone, nor the call of the voice he longed to hear, he did hear a fluttering of feathers. The noise was curious, and he focused on it-- ears swiveling and the stopping abruptly as they hit sharp, tiny pinpricks.

The child looked above, seeing a tiny shape of iridescent feathers; a dark, moving flurry with a speck of a star tucked away under it. Like a rocket, the creature lunged, saying nothing as it tackled the stone, the weight of the bird enough to shift the stone off of his leg.

The bird looked about as she shook off the pain that hitting that boulder must have inflicted, her feathers settling down as she focused on the boy, frozen with wide eyes at the strange thing. While the child knew more than most upon being hatched, he held no recollection of birds, nor of their noisy feathers and sharp trills.

He didn't flinch away-- still rather frozen in the headlights-- as the bird's sharp beak touched his snout with surprising delicacy. His brain finally processed the words she had spoken and he went to speak; so many words tumbling about in his mind. His tongue, however, failed him.

"You ssaah me! I ssoo increbuh, incredib--" The baby hybrid's eyes flashed with indigence, ears laying back against his skull. With a snort, he found his words again, though he had to keep it simple, "thank! Thank you! Ah- ahh-- Hurt? Hurt? Oh... Oh, okay? Wh... Wh... Vazi?"

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

@Eve

That name again, Vazi. She didn't know who it was, despite the crow wracking her brain to figure it out. "Hurt? You hurt?" she asked. Of course he would hurt - he just had a rock crushed under his leg. Eve, however, was no healer. She didn't quite know what to do, but she did hobble up and down Wynter, getting a gauge of how much blood he was loosing but trying not to make a big deal of it as she came hobbling back. "You'll be okay," she said. "Who is Vazi? Do you remember?" Perhaps this wasn't a new gembound; she had seen some retreat back into her own gems, forming a new chrysalis around themselves after a fight. That's what must have happened here - and the gembound was looking for their friend. Strange, however, that there is no one else here. The crow ruffled her feathers up and glanced out across Orion for a moment, thoughtfully. She was no idiot - she knew she needed help here. She concentrated all efforts into her stone for a moment - her initial thought was to send a bright beam of light as a call for aid, but she soon came to regret it. There was a beam of light, alright - bright and powerful, glowing gold. It did not cast out over Orion, however, it cast straight up into the crow's face. The light vanished just as fast as it appeared and sent Eve back several feet, with scratchy-sounding, loud screaming. "EVERYTHING IS OKAY," the agonized crow bellowed. She was laying on her back now, seeing nothing but blinding white light instead of the quartz crystals on the ceiling. Her talons kicked and flailed and her wings attempted to desperately push herself off the ground. "NOTHING IS WRONG HERE," the crow screamed once more, finally falling flat on the ground, heavy breathing whistling through her beak as she waited for the white to fade into the stars once more. Surely, the screaming would have caught someone's attention if not the spark of bright light near the throne. table code © rasta 2015

@Wynter

WYNTER HASIRA And when it's over, we can be together

I'll never be afraid to die again, I'll always be there for you my friend

Wynter had forgotten his pain in the presence of the other gembound, but when she echoed back his question he abruptly realized his leg was aching. He glanced at the blood, confused by the brilliant, bright scarlet on his... Strangely brown, long leg. It took him a moment to take it in, in which the crow went on, speaking in squawks and chirps.

"Okay," he repeated, looking back at Eve with concern, and then introspection as she asked about Vazi. Of course he remembered Vazi, but as he tried to find explanation he found his memory foggy and faded. "... Brother, my brother," he replied softly, watching as she puffed up.

A moment later, lightning crash around them-- silently, without feeling either. It was just bright, blinding light. He flinched, closing his eyes, and tried to stand. Despite being a newborn with stilts for legs, the hybrid rose with startling speed. If it wasn't for his injured leg, which collapsed as soon as any weight was put on it, he might have succeeded standing immediately.

As it was, Wynter collapsed back into the rubble, blinking with spots in his eyes. "Hurt? You're hurt! Hurt... Noth... Noth' 's okay." The baby bleated, trying to get to his feet again, only to stumble forward towards the bird before he finally lay, panting with the effort. A tiny whimper escaped his throat, stretching out a leg towards the tiny bird.

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

@Eve

The crow did not rise from the ground for a solid few moments. Eventually, however, she shifted as the blinding white turned to painful spots in her vision, rolling onto her skinny gut. "Your brother," she repeated in a weak caw, closing her eyes tightly and then opening them again. It didn't help much, it only made the white spot sin her eyes become more angry, invading more of her vision. "We'll find your brother." She remained still for another few beats, only answering when a hoof was extended towards her. "Hurt? No, I'm not hurt. I said-- everything is fine. Nothing is wrong here," her beak grind together as she finally hobbled onto her talons, eyeing Wynter the best she could. "Okay-- okay," the bird tried to settle herself, get her mind into the right place. The strange creature still wasn't standing which meant, perhaps, it had a broken leg. She ruffled her feathers. "What did you say your name was?" She barely waited for a reply - hobbling out past the throne to look across Orion. "We'll find your brother," she repeated, completely unaware of who Vazi was and what had happened to him. She stared out with bleary eyes, fluttering onto the arm of the throne. table code © rasta 2015

@Wynter

WYNTER HASIRA And when it's over, we can be together

I'll never be afraid to die again, I'll always be there for you my friend

The boy blinked slowly at the bird as she seemed to calm down, repeating that she wasn't hurt, and that she was fine. His ears flicked forward and back, unsure what to say or do, worry still crawling through his skin. Eventually she rose to her feet, feathers ruffling, and the child thought he ought to give it a go again.

A bit more carefully this time, he tried to get his legs under his body and get up into the air. He wobbled a bit, stumbling at first as she asked his name as though he had said it. Trying to remember his own name was difficult, however. Only distantly did he think of the first half: Wyn.

"Uhm, okay, um... I... I'm..." He started as he stood on shaky, wobbly legs once and for all, keeping most of his weight off of his injured leg. The child dug at his blurry, fuzzy memories, struggling to find who he was.

All the young fawny lamb could grasp at was a sensation of cold; a flurry of white, blocking him out with harsh, biting wind. The white was blinding, freezing, and as he stumbled with his words, his mind filled in the gap as best it could.

"Wyn... I'm Wynter, I think... I'd 'ont..." But the worry and confusion in his eyes melted as she carried on, promising that they would find his brother. He stumbled forward, nearly tripping on his brand new legs, towards the throne, and smiled up at her. "Thank, thank yuh, m-miss."

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

@Eve