Inside a glacial blue chrysalis, a white, wraith-like Gembound was awakening for the first time. Her body was small, yet lanky, her long legs feeling suddenly cramped inside her topaz cocoon. Instinct drove her to stir, to push against the hard crystalline walls that had kept her safe for one cycle to allow her to grow. But now it was time to emerge, time to come into the world. And it seemed that the wraith was ready, for it did not take long for her spindly legs to push and break open her chrysalis. The only world she’d ever known suddenly shattered into a million pieces…

She lay on the cold, wet ground, her pristine white fur no longer pristine. She was already wet from the amniotic fluid, and now the mud and gunk of Cetus was clinging to her side as she lay staring around with dark eyes. She was cold. The feeling made her smile, the tingling of her skin, the instinct to shiver… It did not bother her as it would other Gembounds. She enjoyed the cool feeling, wanted it to stay with her forever. It was the first sensation she had ever felt, and therefore, it was Home to her.

The sat up properly, lying in the mud, and gazed around some more, taking in her surroundings with a serenity beyond her years. That was when she noticed the Tree. An old, massive Tree with sprawling roots sticking up above the ground. To some, the shapes of the roots looked grotesque. To her, the Tree in its entirety was beautiful. It was a part of her Home… a part of her.

we burn the brightest

in the dark

The mist hung thick through the trees. It draped its heavy veil over the murky swamp, obscuring everything it touched, but through the silhouetted trees, a figure crept. His hooves pressed deep into the marsh, sloshing and squelching with each step. The soft ground impeded his movement, but he pushed on. For a brief moment, the white veil parted over him, reveling the terrible majesty of the Divine through the glade above him. Aries paused, and snorted a plume of smoke from his nostrils. So the rumors are true... He thought. It is real.

------------

The ram pushed his way through the reeds, wading, chest deep, in the black waters. Aries could not help but to feel like he was doing something stupid. A part of him expected a foul creature to lunge from the depths and sink its teeth into his hide, yet, he craved the thrill. He was pretty sure he could fend it off with one, well placed blow, but the scenario kept squirming around in his head. Then, the fog thinned, and the Divine's silhouette loomed ahead, heralding the end to his quest. Aries plowed forward in excitement. Water sloshed loudly in his wake. He hoisted himself on the muddy bank and gave his dripping coat a shake before racing ahead. This time, he could truly see it, a tree of unfathomable height, with gnarled, fiendish roots that seemed to reach from its next victim. The stories the others told about the Divine were certainly not just apocryphal tales.

Suddenly, a flash of white caught his eye. Aries halted and peered through the fog. The blue glint from the Topaz chrysalis drew him closer. It was a little gembound. With her white fur, she almost looked like a ghostly spirit. "Hello." He cooed to the youngling, but their was a bit of uncertainty. Aries stopped a few hoof steps away, making sure the fog wasn't playing tricks on him. He would be sorely embarrassed if this vison wasn't real.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Alaska // OOC:

The ghostly wraith was, in fact, real. Although, she was so entranced by the Tree that she hardly noticed the other Gembound until it spoke. She turned her head then, flashing her dark eyes upon the intruder. She did not understand the sound that had come from its mouth, so she did not react to it, instead opting to study its body, its form. It had big twirly things on top of its head that ended in sharp points. It looked rather spooky to her, so she turned away from it, assuming that if she could not see it, then it could not see her (a common action among young animals). Besides, it had interrupted her time with the Tree. She did not wish to interact with another; she only wanted to sit with the Tree. There was no curiosity towards this other creature, only a bit of fear and annoyance. The wraith was a little strange that way, unlike other Gembounds her age. She danced to the beat of her own drum, so to speak.

@Aries

we burn the brightest

in the dark

She turned away from him. Aries tilted his head in confusion. She seemed real enough, but he could not help but feel a little unnerved by her reaction. I found a creepy child, in the middle of the deep, dark swamp... what could go wrong? Aries cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence between. "I'm uhh.. going to come closer now." He told the white fawn, not wanting to startle her. The large ram took a few hoof steps towards her and gracefully lowered his head to be on her level. "Don't be frightened, I'm not going to hurt you." He cooed once more. "My name's Aries, do you have a name?"

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Alaska // OOC:

More sounds — sounds that meant nothing to the wraith. She did not turn to face the intruder again, instead choosing to focus on the tree, lifting her gaze high into its branches. She let out a long sigh (siiiiiiiiiigh), that sounded like wind through the trees. Her breath came out as a white fog, not so much a puff as a roiling stream. She sat there in stillness and did not intake breath for some time, her lungs empty, her mind somewhat blank. She forgot the intruder, forgot her body, felt only the cold of Cetus around her and felt as if her body were lifting into the sky to be among the branches of the Tree…

…

And then reality grounded her again. In truth, it had been perhaps ten seconds that she lay there with held breath, but it had felt like an eternity. When her mind returned to her body, she slowly took a breath, feeling the cold air seep into her bones, and then turned once again to look at the strange creature who stood beside her. Her black eyes searched his red ones with an unreadable expression. She did not seem to find whatever it was she was looking for, and soon turned away again. He held not the cold within him. He was different from her. He did not feel the Tree. He did not feel the water, the fog, the mist. He was useless to the wraith.

@Aries -- sorry Alaska is so weird. XD

we burn the brightest

in the dark

And still she was silent. Prehaps she could not speak..

Aries lifted his head back up and studied the odd fawn, the peered in the direction her eyes seemed to wander. The ram wondered what had her so transfixed, the only thing thought provoking here was The Divine, but surely it was not impressive enough to render a gembound speechless for awhile.

"Mm... The Divine." He gazed up at the wicked giant, then turned back to the fawn and gave her a soft smile. "Fascinating, huh?" He did not expect her to reply, but hoped she would, somehow, relate. Aries wondered how long she had been like this. Could she stand? Had she ate? Aries remembered how difficult it was for him to stand, and more importantly, how famished he was. "Hungry?" He asked her. Aries made his way to a nearby fern and ripped a few of its leaves off with his teeth. He then placed it in front of the ghostly fawn, gently nudging the pile towards her with his nose.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Alaska // OOC: heh no worries, Aries has a hard time reading the atmosphere

The ghost had forgotten had forgotten the other creature’s existence, something that she would do often in the following days with others, but when he returned to her with some kind of plant and placed it before her, she roused herself a bit. She turned to him and placed her dark-eyed gaze upon him for a few moments, giving him a haunting look. The look meant nothing, but the way she stared seemed to suggest that she was not… all there. Some part of her mind was elsewhere, or altogether missing. Then she looked down at the leaves of the fern he had ripped off for her. She leaned down and sniffed at them curiously, but then pulled away without eating any. She seemed to misunderstand the other’s intention, unaware of what one was meant to do with this green plant. Eating was something she didn’t know how to do yet, and would always have a problem with. It did not come naturally to her.

She gazed around Cetus, her eyes finding the other Gembound again, and looking at him curiously. She leaned her neck out and sniffed the air around him, as if rediscovering him. One ear flicked, and then she turned away and found the Tree again, and forgot once more that anyone was near her. It was nothing personal. It was simply how she was.

@Aries

we burn the brightest

in the dark

The ram before the ghostly fawn like a stoic guardian as he observed her odd behavior. Her lack of interest in anything, especially food, had him worried, but she did manage to sniff him. He sniffed her back, searching for even the faintest hint of illness on her breath, but there seemed to be none. She appeared be fine, and that was the problem.

Aries was at a moral dilemma.

He knew there were many dangerous things Cetus. There were dangerous things everywhere. His harrowing encounter with a gruesome dragon was more than enough proof for him. Yet, he could not stay here, but also he could not, in good conscious, abandon her too. She was a tad bit creepy, and he did not even know her name, but still, he felt pity for the icy fawn and now, somewhat responsible for her. New Gembounds are in need of guidance, but how could he offer it if she did not seem to understand. The ram laid down beside the white fawn and let out a wistful sigh. He did not say anything, only sat in silence as the mist blanked the floor. In one last effort of solicitous action, Aries extended his muzzle towards her, hoping that she would at least let him clean up the dirt, grime, and amniotic fluid from her coat and warm her up. She looked so cold...

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Alaska // OOC: Hope you don't mind him trying to give her a spit bath

The wraith felt something warm and rough on her pelt, and gasped slightly in surprise and a bit of fear. She spun her head around quickly, dark eyes pinning the ram in a tumultuous expression of why’s and what’s. He had licked her. And it had been warm. And she did not understand warmth. She did not understand heat. She did not understand the Gembound’s need for physical contact. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she had a fleeting thought that it would be best to flee now. Her legs bunched underneath her, but then the thought passed and she gazed upon the ram again, expression softening a bit. She did not think he had been attempting to harm her. But she did not like the contact. To sit close to one another was one thing. The heat radiating from him without his touching her was bad enough, but she tolerated it. It was another thing entirely to be licked without permission.

She gave the ram a disapproving look and inched away from him a bit as if to say, ’I did not appreciate that and am establishing distance between us.’ When she had locked him in her gaze for a few moments longer, to ensure that he would not attempt to get closer to her, she turned away from him again. She was giving him the chance to stay, and remain a distant comfort to her, or to leave, and be forgotten. Possibly forever. Either way, it was entirely up to him, and no matter what he chose, she would not be strongly affected.

@Aries

we burn the brightest

in the dark

He stopped once he saw that his grooming startled the child. Honestly, her reaction spooked him as much as it did her. Aries leaped up to his hooves, confused. Her coal-black eyes pierced through his heart, and it made him rather uncomfortable. It was the way they lingered. He subconsciously puffed out his chest, as if it would ward off the fawn's glare, but then Aries relaxed his stance, realizing that it was ridiculous. He gave the white wraith an apologetic bow. To upset her was the last thing he wanted to do.

"I'm sorry, I did not mean to startle you." He apologized.

He had know idea if she could understand his words, but one thing was clear to him. He had seemed to over stay his welcome. If she wanted some alone time, then what right did have to intrude upon it? Maybe, that was what she was trying to say all along. But Aries could not abandon her completely to Cetus, he would be back, at least to check. He turned his head to the white fawn and said "I'm uh... going to go now." He paused for second. "If you need anything I'll be over there." Aries tilted his head in the direction of The Divine. The ram slumped away towards the tree then stopped to look back at wraith one last time. He dipped his head in goodbye before he leaped on the gnarled roots, and effortlessly bounded away on the uneven ground, disappearing in the fog.



-Exit Aries-

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Alaska // OOC: oops aries fucked it up