Darkness. Astaroth moves slowly as he awakens, he realizes he's trapped and starts thrashing around in the compact area he's stuck in, it's so tight and claustrophobic... He puts his back against one side and one side and pushes, cracking the outer wall of his chrysalis and tumbling out into the inside of a large structure made of bones. He stumbles as he tries to stand and walk, somewhere, anywhere. He yelps as he falls forward. He looks down at his paws and sees that one is splayed. He feels a slight burning sensation on the tip of his ear and wipes at it to see blood smeared against his paw. He must have scratched while he fell. He slowly got to his feet and took a few steps. He stopped and decided to rest.

When he wakes up he starts to explore, he sees many structures like the one he woke up in. He tries to climb one to get a better view of the cavern.

Astaroth climbs a nearby tower and looks out across the cave. It's so huge. But the bones everywhere, were these all other things that were in this cave before, should he be afraid of whether he would be able to leave or not? No. He explores until he reaches a tunnel. ((tunnel K)) and walks along it to the end

It took him a small while to adjust to a life of freedom. Then again, was it much of a life of freedom if he was still trapped inside this cave? Did it matter if he dedicated the rest of his life to research alongside Astraea and Senka, or if he was given control over his destiny? In the end, it would make no difference. No - that was wrong. There was a difference in that if he'd spent it with Astraea and Senka, he knew he'd make progress. He knew something would come of it.

But out here? He had no purpose. Freedom didn't matter if he had no purpose.

Slowly, Bartos had begun giving himself tasks. He had visited his old haunt high up in the cliffs of Orion, but many of his stones were stolen or cracked, his belongings long since raided in his absence. The telescope that sat still constructed in the tower had gathered dust in its disuse and one of its limbs, constructed from salvaged metal scraps, was beginning to erode away. Soon it would collapse. Bartos had no use for it anyways. He was trapped with his thoughts, and one by one they manifested themselves in private wonders and small curiosities; he'd gone to Maji Walezi to see what was left. Nothing, like they said. No sign of his children or friends. He looked for stones, contemplated digging up Bevy, but nothing came of it.

He wondered if Kerberos was still there, if the Bonebound still haunted Canis. But when he arrived in the bone room, it too was empty. He looked for stones there, too. He began to wonder where Clover was too. If he could find her, if he could rescue her, from where ever she had finally fell.

Bartos hadn't made it out of Canis before this thought started to fester in his mind. He was still searching, but now his paws wanted to take him elsewhere. It would have been easy to just go and search until he was needed again, but something had stopped him. The sound of footfall - another life, another breathing Gembound, finally. The cat perked his ears and pushed the thought of Clover to the back of his mind, following the sound until he spotted a dark youth. The pup was as big as he was, but obviously still young. Bartos lingered some ways away and stared, making no attempt to hide himself and considering what to do next.

@Astaroth

Not long had it taken for Astaroth to catch the scent of his shadow. He could tell that it was about his size but not much more. He wasn't sure whether he should turn around and greet himself or if he should try to lose them so he kept walking and thought that maybe he could lose the shadow and hide to see them. Eventually he stopped for a second but didn't hear footsteps behind himself anymore. He turned to see a cat with long hair and a pair of circular-rimmed glasses, but the thing he noticed the most was the large benitoite gem embedded in his chest. He laughed at his suspicion of this creature. He approached slowly and sat on his haunches when he reached the cat. "Who are you?" He asked curiously, cocking his head as he did so.

Unmoving, it seemed the boy was quick to notice Bartos as quickly as Bartos had noticed him. The cat remained anchored to his spot on the stone floor, suddenly acutely aware of how cold and musty the rock was beneath his leathery, rough paw pads. At the pup’s laughter, Bartos turned his ears back, and as he turned and started making his way back towards Bartos, the cat slowly reclined onto his haunches.

He momentarily forgot about the risks that strangers presented. One too many times he had been trusting - if not trusting, then not conscious enough to realize how much of a threat someone was. He hadn’t escaped in time. It was why one of his hind legs was awkwardly twisted out when he stood and swung limply when he walked. It didn’t move in the socket like how it was supposed to. But what worse could a child do to him than Hasira? And as he watched the canine approach, Bartos found himself reassured that if needbe, he could harness his magic to defend himself.

At the same time, even further inwardly, he wondered if it was worth the energy expenditure.

Had Bartos become careless? He was always a cautious cat, but his life lacked the value he believed it once had. Death no longer intimidated him - it was just a shadow lurking overhead, waiting for the proper moment to pluck him and take him away for good.

Fortunately, the puppy was the furthest thing from a threat as evidenced by his friendly greeting. A cool, even question on his identity. The answer should have been easy enough, but Bartos nearly faltered. He hardly felt like himself these days. “Bartos.” He answered briskly, looking the pup over. “Do you have a name yet?” He didn’t know how recently he had emerged, or if there was someone there to chaperone his emergence into the cave, to give him a name. For a moment, he found himself missing the warmth of the three-headed dog that found him first.

@Astaroth

"N-no, I don't... I was alone when I woke up... do I just... give myself a name?" The puppy suddenly seemed uncomfortable, this was the first other creature he had met and he didn't want to give a bad impression. He was young but not stupid. "So... where am I?" This place is weird. And the one I was in... there were so many bones, who's... what's were those? It was scary...

It seemed the boy was not fortunate enough to have been greeted during his emergence. He hadn’t found himself a name, either. From Bartos’ experience, a young Gembound either named themselves or received help from an older one. Very rarely did someone already have names picked out, the only time he had ever seen that was when Leon and Makyna were anticipating the emergences of their three hybrid children. Otherwise, the young were left to fend for themselves. Learn by themselves, hurt by themselves, and grow into creatures capable of good or evil by themselves.

Was this why so many of them were afflicted with the madness? They didn’t have parents like Leon and Makyna to raise them and teach them how to be good? If that was the case, then he feared for his own children. He had left them far too soon, and Clover barely had a chance to be a mother at all. It stung to think how good of a mother she could have been.

But he was finding his thoughts were drifting off track again, and he settled his attention back on the pup, now asking where they were. “This place is called Canis. It used to be home to a group of Gembound called the Bonebound, but they’re gone.” He said, falling pensively silent for a moment. He didn’t know if they were dead or had just moved on. “You’re safe here.” He added. “No more bad guys around to muck up the place.”

They’d all gone away.

As for his name, Bartos wasn’t sure how he could contribute. He’d been terrible when it came to contributing names for his children. Ultimately it was Clover who named them - he was sure that if it was left up to him, Bartos would have named themsomething stupid like Mud and Dirt. Those things were important. They had foundation, meaning. But they were poor names.

“Maybe there’s someone else out there that would have a name for you.” Bartos suggested after a moment. “I can take you to Polaris. Surely there must be someone there.”

@Astaroth

"Um... ok. Where is Pol... pilar...piliras..." The pup stumbled on his words, he looked to Bartos curiously to convey that he just wanted to know where the place was... however you pronounce the name of that place... the pup tried to walk closer to Bartos to show that he was following but stumbled and fell, he yelped and looked at his splayed paw, it hurt so much... how wold he ever survive if he can't even walk... He looked up at Bartos sadly. He hoped that the cat would understand that the trip to that one place that he can't pronounce would be a slow one. "I'm sorry" He said sullenly as he got back up to his feet. He tried to walk again but yelped when he put a small amount of weight on his paw. He stumbled again. He kept trying to walk normally and finally just gritted his teeth and limped over to Bartos, he was ready.

Bartos hadn’t moved from his position since starting to speak with the pup. Even after deciding on their next course of action, Bartos remained anchored to his spot, unwilling to commit to the journey quite yet. It made him feel like he was being cold when he watched the pup stumble over to him, faltering over one of his paws and struggling over the name of their destination. The child was a pitiful thing, as were most young Gembounds, but Bartos had no right to judge. He had been just as helpless when he was young.

It didn’t remedy the fact that Bartos already didn’t want anything to do with the youth. He couldn’t be faulted for his ineptitude being so young. He was by no means guilty for having wounded his paw at some point and seeking help. Bartos was just a grumpy, miserable cat who liked his solitude. But he wasn’t an asshole, so he’d help. Even if there were a million other things he’d rather be doing.

Then again, Bartos wondered if he could make the most of it. He probably would need to visit Polaris anyways. See what kinds of stones he could salvage - maybe find someone that knew something, anything, about the death of his wife. He would be assisting this young Gembound in the process. So that was good.

Bartos pulled back his ears as the young one apologized for his stumbling. “Don’t be sorry.” He said flatly - it sounded a lot meaner than he intended it to - and lifted back to his paws to try and reduce the distance the wounded pup had to walk. Once by his side, Bartos tilted his head and examined his injury. Bartos was no good at healing - his magic was meant for building. Not repairing. “Someone there will probably be able to help you with that paw too.” Bartos added.

With a flick of his tail, he started towards the tunnel entrance, one that would lead to Orion first - then to Polaris. He took his s teps slow, watching the pup with dull, blue eyes and patience. Bartos was in no rush. After all, that was why he was back out here in the first place. To wait.

@Astaroth

The pup slowly stumbled on behind Bartos. He wasn't sure how to feel about his new companion, he seemed impossibly distant. Like he was hiding something but he didn't question it too much, it was like he knew it but didn't really think about it too much. He stumbled over his paw repeatedly as he walked, eventually he just gritted his teeth and tried to walk on it normally. He clenched his jaw and squinted, trying to keep going as he was even while tears began to stream down his face. He stumbled again, it hurt, it hurt so much, but he had to keep going... He got back up and continued walking behind Bartos, eventually evening out his stride as he stalked behind the cat, he eventually became numb to the pain... he just focused on walking, front right, back left, front left, back right. He walked with his head slightly bowed. He wished his companion would at least speak a little more, tell him something of this world but, he would find anything out eventually and he was leading him to the place he would get his name... get this stupid paw fixed. He actually felt that anything he asked would have a highly ambiguous answer, extremely open to interpretation."H...How far is P...Pola...Polaris?"

tags: @Bartos
notes: Sorry this took so long, computer died <3