Fira did not remember falling asleep. Her last somewhat clear memory was back cycles ago, when she’d briefly met her son, Joy. And then suddenly she was… What… Her green eyes blinked open and were irritated by the feeling of some fluid. Wait… Was she back inside her chrysalis? How long had she been asleep? And where had Joy gone in her absence. Damn it! She needed to stop disappearing from the world every time things got sad!

With an internal growl, she pushed through the maw-sit-sit chrysalis and fell with an undignified plop onto the ground. She took a moment to catch her breath, even as her ears were immediately assaulted with the sound of some kind of storm above her. She looked around, eyes squinted in confusion and curiosity. “Gods,” she muttered. “What, I hibernate for a couple cycles and the world falls apart?” She chuckled to herself, even though the fur on the back of her neck was standing up in alarm. She’d never seen a storm here before…

@Cecei

Cecei was still trying to learn more about this storm. She looked around slowly, inspecting it at every angle she could without getting too close to it. It was then she heard something, and her eyes were directed to someone hatching but this was different. They weren't newly born. Why had they gone back into their chrysalis? She didn't even realise that was even possible. She made her way over slowly, being careful of the storm. When she was close enough to the leopard she spoke to her softly. "Hey, what happened? Why were you back in the chrysalis? No matter the answer, I think we need to get out of here. This storm is dangerous." She looked at the storm once more and watched it closely. If she could learn more about it, then that would be perfect.

Fira heard the sound of someone approaching and looked over. It was a bird — a raven — and from their size, they looked to be a Gemling. The leopard attempted her best smile, but it came out looking tired, like she hadn’t smiled in a long time. In fact, Fira’s whole body looked tired. She was slumped over like… well, like she’d been stuck inside a chrysalis for Gods knew how long. She shook her head in amusement. She’d forgotten how curious Gemlings could be. “Uh, actually,” she began, “I don’t know how I ended up back in my chrysalis.” She glanced up at the storm again. “Yeah, I agree with you there. Let’s get outta here.” She stood up, grimacing at how wobbly her legs felt. Oh, good, my muscles have probably atrophied, she thought cheerfully to herself. I need a good run. A good hunt, more like. “Come on,” she said to the bird. “And I’m Fira, by the way.”

@Cecei

Cecei wasn't going to learn about the storm just by looking at it. She looked to the leopard and watched how she was still waking up. Cecei walked with her slowly, nodding her head. As she listened some continued to inspect the storm. She then turned to the generator. She had been focusing on the storm all this time but she hadn't spent too much time focusing on the generator. "Wait, I want to check something. My name is Cecei. Nice to meet you Fira. She walked up to the generator, making sure not to get too close then began to inspect it. Maybe there was something wrong with it? Some sort of damage or malfunction?

@Fira

Fira followed along behind the raven, curious to see what she was going to do, but she stayed silent. She didn’t want to bother the bird. She still had no idea what was going on with the storm, and, as silly as it sounded, this Gemling probably had a better idea than she did about any of it. Besides, she was still trying to get her bearings straight. She sat down quietly as the bird examined the generator, staring up at the storm some more, mostly for something to do than for any other reason. A horrible thought occurred to her. Would she have to leave Polaris for good? What about Joy? Where was he? Was he safe? She hadn’t been outside of Polaris for… for so long that it seemed like forever. She couldn’t leave the den near the river… It was where she’d met Destiny, where her life had truly began — and ended.

On second thought, maybe getting out of Polaris wasn’t such a bad idea.

@Cecei

Nothing seems to be amiss; although the lights are off throughout the cave system and the generator is sitting placidly beneath this storm, everything is intact and should be functioning - but it isn't.

Overhead, as if the storm has witnessed the gradual collection of gembound in the area, the clouds continue to drift, roll, and spasm with energy. The storm is spread out across the whole of Polaris but has suddenly fixated itself upon the gemlings by the generator, and has begun to sweep closer and build in strength above them.

Upon inspection she couldn't see anything particular. The generator seemed to be completely fine from what she could tell. What she did notice however was the storm was starting to gather up around the generator and growing stronger. She looked back to the leopard and gave a soft nod to her. It was getting more and more dangerous the longer they stayed around the generator. "Right, we should get out of here. It's getting too dangerous. I can't see any problems with the generator, it should be working but it just isn't." She looked back to the generator one last time before quickly moving away from it. She looked back to see if Fira was coming.

@Fira

But Fira wasn’t coming. Fira had just seen something farther down the river, away from the generator. Her heart skipped a beat, and she ran on unsteady legs towards the den where she and Destiny had lived. Briefly, her children had lived here, too. She thought painfully of Emendri, who was now probably dead. She stared at where the entrance used to be. She thought she’d blocked it off, though now she couldn’t exactly remember. That didn’t matter now, though. The den itself had collapsed in on itself without proper care. She stared at her destroyed home, feeling conflicted. She knew she needed to leave, knew Polaris wasn’t good for her anymore, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from what had once been her whole life.

No. Destiny had been her whole life. Her children had been her whole life. This den was just a hole in the ground. She could make another one if she wanted to, somewhere far away from here. She turned away from it and padded resolutely in the opposite direction. Destiny was gone. She needed to get her life back. She needed something to do with herself. She’d… she’d think of something.

@Cecei

Cecei stopped as she saw that the leopard had gone a totally different way. She followed the leopard to the destroyed den and stared at it. After a few moments of silence though, she began to go in the opposite direction. Cecei moved over to the leopard once more and walked by her side. Cecei opened one of her wings for a moment before looking back to the leopard. She crouched slightly then jumped up and flapped her wings rapidly. With a bit of effort, she landed on Fira's back, she almost fell however and she had to open both her wings to try and balance herself. She was still learning to fly it seemed. She walked up her back slowly until she reached Fira's shoulder then sat herself down neatly and carefully. She leaned her head forward towards her ear and spoke. "Whatever happened back there, don't worry. Things will get better soon. We need to be careful though. Ever since my hatching, things have been looking pretty nefarious." Cecei looked up back towards the storm one more time, things weren't looking too good right now.

@Fira

Fira tried not to jump when the Gemling hopped up onto her soldier. She hadn’t been touched by anyone since… well, it was either since the last time she’d seen Destiny, or the last time she’d seen Joy. She couldn’t remember now. She glanced with a smirk and a shake of the head at the bird. She couldn’t believe she was being given advice by a Gemling. It didn’t really bother her, since something so trivial would never bother Fira, she just thought it was funny. Which… was good, she supposed. The fact that she thought something was funny. There had been a time cycles ago that she’d thought nothing would ever be funny again. “So, where to?” she asked, thinking it would be nice to let the raven be in charge. She felt strangely like a mother to the babe. This twinged in her heart a bit, but she let it slide. It was nice to feel she had some kind of purpose again.

@Cecei