Any inclination of distrust faded the second the peacock-- Alan, they said --began to glow. She rose to stand almost at once, padding over heavily to the blue bird and slowly beginning to sniff the glowing feathers. She did answer his not-at-all a question, though absent-mindedly.

"There's a rock, here," she half-explained, focusing more on the smells. "It glows blue like you do. Nothing else glows." Kera, of course, had no idea what the spire was or what it was even called. She only knew it glowed, and it was in this room-- therefore, this was the glow-room.

Kera's logic, as always, was impeccable.

Speaking of the wolf's logic-- she did not know what evil smelled like. Geese and owls did not have a particularly shared scent. Fighting smelled like blood, but betrayal didn't smell like anything other than the stale scent of someone you thought was your friend.

Alan did not smell like blood, nor did he smell particularly stale, but at first neither had the goose or the owl. They, however, could not make light. That meant that Alan was no doubt, not evil.

As always. Impeccable logic.

She turned her head towards Calliope again when the deer spoke. She shook her head. "There are birds-- that glow --they're looking for a stag who has a stone, I think," she spoke at length, seemingly unsure herself. "It's-- no, it's not any of these."

She moved towards them, picking through them with a paw. "They're grey, right?" She said, showing them off. "They said they were looking for one with a lot of colours, but that a stag would have it. Someone old, I think."

Kera did not know, truthfully.

@Alan

At first, Alan was a little surprised when Kera came over and sniffed him, but then relaxed once he realized that she was just checking out his lights. He smiled. He didn't really mind the close contact. In fact, it was slightly reminiscent of his closeness with Fira. He almost leaned into her touch, but then remembered that she didn't smell particularly pleasant and decided against it. But that didn't really matter. She liked his lights. And he liked Kera. Perhaps now Kera liked him?

He nodded at her answer, understanding. He had not yet noticed the glowing thing, but he was certain that it was probably there. However, he thought of this room as the Room of Flashing Lights. If Kera wanted to call it the glow-room, he had no problem with that.

He watched Calliope search for stone on the ground and, after a moment of thought, decided that he would join him. Looking for stones sounded fun, especially if they were looking for pretty stones. Maybe they could find a pretty stone for the birds anyways, even if an old stag was the one supposed to have it. After a few moments of looking, Alan spotted something that looked a little different beneath the rocks.

He stood over the rocks and pecked at the stone, trying to dislodge it. Eventually, it was good enough for him to pull out, from the earth, a most magnificent gem of all different colors. It was very pretty. "Hey, look at this stone I found!"Proud, he showed it to Calliope and Kera. He hoped that they liked it as much as he did.

@Calliope

calliope sighed in disappointment as she failed to find anything of interest. she kicked up some of the stray pebbles in her wake, scattering them all around in the dirt. they made a pleasant clicking sound when they moved and jumped and fell-- she quite liked it. she closed her eyes to listen, but when she focused all she could hear was the cacophony echoing throughout the room.


opening her eyes, she saw alan searching for stones as well. she scoffed, not expecting him to find anything among these garbage rocks, as she saw them. "there's no use, these rocks are all--" but before she could say another word, alan pulled up a beautiful stone-- could it really be called a stone? it was too beautiful... no, it was surely a crystal.


"wow..." she murmured, inaudibly. "now, that's a pretty gem!" she exclaimed, although her facial expression remained unimpressed. she considered stealing the stone, or at least convincing alan to give it to her, but he didn't deserve that kind of treatment. "what would these birds want with a pretty stone, anyway...?" she said, unaware of how loud she was talking, as she kicked up some more of the tiny pebbles, just for the noise.

@kira

Kera glanced between Alan and Calliope for a moment, head tilted. She wasn't sure what they would find-- certainly not the stone the stag had, at least --and she had turned her head to listen to Calliope begin to speak when Alan called over.

Confused, she pushed herself up and edged over. "Oh!" She glanced over the gem for a moment before leaning down to sniff it. It was-- perhaps luckily --not an actual gembound's gem. "It's pretty."

She nodded her agreement, glancing over at the deer-- who did not seem particularly enthused about Alan's find. Perhaps she was jealous that he found something better? Regardless, she sat back on her haunches and spoke.

"I don't know, but I don't think this is what they're looking for," she said. "What will you do with your new rock, Alan?"

@Alan

Alan smiled at Calliope, happy that he had made her happy with his gem. He didn't really seem to notice the unenthusiastic look on her face. Instead her just looked between the two. He was slightly crestfallen that he hadn't found the right stone, but Kera had said that a stag had it. So of course he wouldn't be able to find it just from a little searching. However, the stone was still very pretty so he had to do something special with it. He wanted it to glow, just like he did. And, without really knowing it, the magic within him released into the gem and it began to glow brightly. A little surprised, he almost dropped it from his beak. However, he kept a hold of it and looked at it. It was very pretty! The colors weren't just blue, they were all sorts of colors. Red, yellow, green, purple. All the colors!

Happy that he had made such a beautiful treasure, he turned to Calliope and set it down in front of her. "Today is our life day, so I'd like you to have this. You can do what you want with it, throw it away or cherish it. But it's yours. Happy life day!" He then glanced towards Kera, unsure if she would feel bad that he wasn't giving it to her. "If you want, I can find you a pretty gem and make it glow for you too. I don't know if I'll find another one like this though..."

"Hear my voice"
Listen to my thoughts

Tag: @Calliope
Notes:

when alan offered her the bauble, calliope failed to contain her happiness, letting loose the smallest of smiles. quickly, she shook herself of the emotion and stared at him blankly, "um... how do you... do that? i mean, how do you make... the glow-y orb thingy?" calliope couldn't understand why alan would give her this, but she was grateful all the same-- and she could barely stop herself from giving a smug look to kera, who had not received a bauble.

happy life day to me... she though to herself, holding the bauble by its string in her mouth, twirling it around to see how the colors changed. cherish it... or throw it away? she'd definitely choose the former over the latter, but she didn't want to show alan how much it meant to her, so she set it down on the ground in-between her cloven hooves and said, "it's nice, i suppose."

she wanted to make it up to him somehow, but she wasn't capable of creating orbs of light like he was. instead, she tried to show her gratitude the only way she knew how-- with mycelia. concentrating, she tried to force fungi to grow from the rich earth, maybe then she could pull a few up and give them to him? but, she failed miserably-- the ground all around her became light brown, and crisply dry, now nothing could grow there. "i... i'm sorry?" in all honesty, she didn't know what to say. her head sank, she was visibly upset that she couldn't pay alan back.

@kera

Kera watched the baubled stone with a tilted head, observing the colours for a moment. At first, she didn't think much of Alan giving it away to Calliope as a gift. Hell, she thought it was nice. It was a good way to make friends.

When she looked up, however, Calliope was giving her a strange look. It sent spite flowing through her veins near-immediately. Kera hadn't ever been given anything. She did her best to help others and be friendly and bring light to the caves, but it seemed as though all it brought her was fights with geese and betrayals from birds.

She bristled, but otherwise she did not show these thoughts or the lingering spite in her gut, looking towards Alan. "I don't need one," she said a little too calmly. There was truth to it, at least-- Kera could make her own lights and she didn't have any particular need or desire for a glowing stone, no matter how pretty it was.

However, as she caught sight of Calliope making the ground wilt around her, she felt some sort of smug happiness that she had failed. She didn't know the word for it, but she bathed in the emotion for several seconds before cold guilt took her over.

Kera decided not to let either of these emotions show themselves either, as she quietly looked between the bird and the deer.

@Alan

Alan shrugged at Calliope's question. "I don't know, I've never actually done it before." He looked at the gem carefully. Had he really done that? Make it glow so pretty? He had only before made his feathers light up, he didn't even know he could make other things light as well.

As he was looking at the gem, he missed Calliope's look at Kera, but did pick up on the hostility, as the glance he shot in her direction showed her bristling. He assumed it was because she didn't have a pretty glowing gem as well, even if she said she didn't. He didn't want her to feel upset. He needed to find her one too.

"I want to get you one! To celebrate our life day! Then later maybe I'll get one too. We'll all have life day gems!" He ran off, scouring the ground for another gem that he could give Kera. He wanted it to be beautiful and perfect, just like the one he had given Calliope. However, his search did not yield as pretty a stone. It was of similar qualities, crystal and clear, but it didn't have the colors that the first one had. However, he was sure that he could make it a rainbow again.

He returned to Kera and Calliope with the gem in his beak and set it down in front of her. "Do you like it? I can make it glow for you."

"Hear my voice"
Listen to my thoughts

Tag: @Calliope
Notes:

calliope smiled as she was staring into the orb, happy that alan had made it for her and happy that alan hadn't made one for kera. she glanced over at the wolf, she was clearly upset, even if it didn't show in her voice. it showed in the way she bristled in reaction to calliope's smug glance. calliope was happy about this, too. happy that she had made someone else upset. little did she know that her complete and utter failure had given kera joy. perhaps it was better to stay ignorant.

when alan offered to make a bauble for kera, calliope couldn't do anything except keep a straight face and hide her anger. no, you made one for me and only me. she thought to herself, though keeping a stoic face. luckily, the stone that alan pulled up wasn't quite as breathtaking as the one he had found for her. it was clear and crystal, sure, but without the beautiful colors hers had.

still, calliope didn't realize that perhaps it didn't matter what colors the gem was, or that it was a gem at all. maybe to kera only the gesture mattered, but to calliope it was more about the object itself. she'd happily give up any friendship in her life to have every beautiful bauble this world had to offer.

@kera

Kera was becoming increasingly uncomfortable in the presence of the deer. It was, unfortunately, not the first time another gembound seemed to dislike her for... virtually no reason. Although Kera wasn't particularly bothered by being disliked in itself, knowing full well she wouldn't get on with everyone, she was bothered by the fact that she didn't know what she had done to warrant hostility.

Still bristled, Kera turned her head back towards Alan. "No, really it-" she began, though the bird was already off, leaving her alone in the presence of Calliope once more. She did nothing more but sit there in a tense silence, staring out in the direction Alan had ran off in.

When Alan returned, she felt herself relax a little. The fur along her back evened out and she craned her head forward to sniff at the clear gem. It didn't need any particular colours for her, really-- it was pretty enough on its own. "I like it," she said, tail wagging behind her. "You can make it glow if you'd like."

It wasn't necessary. Kera was already trying to decide what she would do with it. Perhaps, if it was going to produce light, she could put it in Giggle's den or near her bones to help give her more light and keep the Eyes and the Blackness away from her.

Speaking of Giggle-- "Here," she said, as she lay her head down near Alan, pressing her nose to the ground. With her gem glowing pink under a mass of ragged, white fur, mushrooms began to sprout in a circle around Alan. The way Giggle had taught her, of course.

There were many of them-- an uneven carpet around the bird, and they gave off a rich, blue bioluminescent glow. "They're blue, like you," she explained-- as if this needed further explaining. She lay down, observing her work for a moment, and then observing the crystal. "Thank you."

@Alan