With the lights back on Amras was no longer holed up in his tunnels. For most in the caves life had resumed just where it had left off at. For him, however, this was a prime opportunity to explore like he hadn't before. Each day he would travel to a new room, find a new spot, and perhaps even try a new spell. While Orion was a room he had known since youth it was not one he had explored fully. He knew the stream and the hunting spots and the leatherworkers abode he'd stumbled upon once, but today he had pressed into the very heart of the city and settled in the center of a stage of some sort. Not for vanity or anything of the sort, but for the acoustics.

Here in the heart of Orion every small sound seemed to be amplified. Here in the center of the stage he could hear every lesser gembound and gust of wind. More importantly here in the core of Orion he could focus on every beat made by the primal core which resided within.

The gryphon sat with his talons intertwined in front of him, eyes closed and breath slow. For minutes on end he sat there doing nothing but focusing on his breath, trying to feel the ebbs and flows in the tempo of his core. The animal element was all about attuning your magic to that rhythm, if the magic ever desynchronized it would fall apart. If he was to master this internal element he would have to become accustomed to its source.

More time passed in utter silence as the gryphon began to drift into a kind of trance. He couldn't tell exactly when, but some part of him recognized his own state and began to gather magic for his spell. The rod on the back of his right forearm began to glow as an almost invisible white energy surrounded his fur and feathers. On some subconscious level he divided the sheet into numerous squares, each made up of four smaller squares. These cells pulsed in tune with the rhythm of the core.

The tempo increased, and with it the subconscious twisting of the cells. The intensity increased and with it the intensity of the weave. One out of every four subsections began to turn red in attunement with the animal element, but the spell was unstable. The remaining three sections turned yellow into light energy from the intensity, and then orange from the power put into it. The whole mesh of energy became overpowered with the fire element and manifested.

The gryphon's eyes shot open, his entire body engulfed in flame. This wasn't good...

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Empty	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Pippy
notes: None

Pippy while still preferring to remain holed up in her den as a part of her was attempting to get over what happened in Cetus what with the glowing-flying-thing often had such strong urges to go out with the lights back on; the 'stars' are too pretty just to be left ignored by her. Not to add, she wishes to learn more Magick now, after all, Magick can help in making her den even more cosy to live. And so she was out and about where though she doesn't know, she was looking up at the 'stars' of Orion, although she still occasionally took her eyes off to check her surroundings whenever she heard the slightest unusual noise, as Pippy is still spooked relatively easily.

Over time Pippy was treading the paths of Orion for quite some time now and her feeling to just remain relaxed, and a sense of safety was beginning to develop in her head. Although it'll most likely only be for this one venture out, the fears will most likely come back the moment she goes out again from her den.

Pippy still doesn't know where she's going, or when she decides to practice her Magick, most likely not on the paths, somewhere more obscure would be preferable. There is something she wanted to check for quite a while now though.

There was this building in Orion she always wanted to inspect, there was strangely a large gathering of Gembound along this building recently, that large crowd scared Pippy into remaining hidden in her den until they all went away and Orion was peaceful and quiet again. Pippy has been very curious as to what happened there; what brought that many Gembound?

The trek to the rounded building that is the Forum most likely took hours so much Pippy is feeling sore now, but she got there, eventually and went climbing to it until she finally managed to get herself around the rows of seats in the building

Soon Pippy became conscious of what looked to be the shape of another Gembound sitting right in the middle of this building, curious and a sense of dread built in her. The tiny bat squinted her eyes, Pippy could make out the outline form of a Gembound which made her uneasy, but it doesn't look like a glowing-flying-thing or anything, still, even with this perspective distance, they did look to be quite massive to her. Strange; she wouldn't say they whoever they are, are glowing like a glowing-flying-thing they seem a little, shiny, it's a faint sheen though, and there soon appeared to be a trace of orange on that faint sheen soon after. She got a little more curious and tried to get closer to the centre where this Gembound is sitting.

Soon though their form's outline suddenly is covered in a fire that instantly flared to life around them. It was quite blinding on Pippy's eyes when she looked straight at it, which got her concerned it didn't seem pleasant, and it didn't look pleasant for the other Gembound that this fireball burst around.

Concerned while one part of her wished to flee, she couldn't just leave them be, and so Pippy was soon despite the fatigue was hobbling over to them very fast to get closer to them. It took some time, but she did manage to reach the centre where they were, eventually.

As she ventured closer the shape of this Gembound was much closer, and she quickly noticed to her horror just how huge they were, more massive than she expected them to be which was off-putting and got her tempted to leave right then and there. But she also realised with that fire up close was crackling, roaring and waving around like water did it might be hurting this Gembound. When getting closer, Pippy felt her body was getting heated up by the flames too, and while she likes warmth this heat the fire was emanating burned a little, which made her scared for this Gembound's well-being. This substance is around their body so it must hurt severely, that Pippy couldn't help but look at them with considerable concern.

She got very close to them, right by one of their talons that's on the ground so she could reach those. The sharpness of their enormous claws was scary, but soon she started batting her wings at the flame in some attempt to help them by fanning the fire, some of the fireball licking at Pippy's fur.

@Amras

Okay, don't panic. Think. So the magic backfired. It wouldn't be the first time. So you're on fire. Wouldn't be the first time for that either. The magic powering it will fade before it becomes lethal. But it'll cause some serious burns if nothing is done. I would have liked to have forgotten what it felt like having your flesh seared off. Only one rational thing to do at a time like this.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Amras screamed out in a deafening caw, pushing the air around him away as he rapidly unfurled his wings and began flapping and running and tumbling away from his spot on the stone structure toward the sandy ground closer to the seats. Dust flew up into the air as he hit the spot and a portion of the flames weakened but didn't go out.

He wanted the fire to go away! Every nerve ending on his body screamed out as smoke rose from his form with the searing of his fur. The downy feathers on the front half of his body were burning away and leaving heat-scarred flesh behind. Instincts took over, as his stone began to glow again- the only directive being 'get it away'.

Magic shrouded his body once more, hidden completely by the flames which began trying to feed on the renewed energy. The raw energy magic, however, would not be used that way and manifested in a spherical shockwave that pushed flame and dust and feathers out and away. Amras was left lying in the dust, covered in burns and disoriented from his brush with the untamed nature of magic, but alive.

"Must have been quite a show for you, little moth." he voiced weakly with some amusement as he looked back to the spot he had been just a moment before and spotting what looked like an insect fluttering about.

His head lowered as he stayed still eyes open and staring at nothing. It looked like this day was not going to be spent practicing primal magic but rather casting multiple applications of Recover on himself. Once he had a chance to rest though. Perhaps after he felt like he could sit up without his skin falling off.

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Empty	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Pippy
notes: None

Pippy tried all capably possible to help this here Gembound, so she didn't stop for even one second at trying to extinguish the flames on this poor Gembound despite how feeble Pippy's attempt at it was. All she has succeeded in doing is making the fire not as bad on their talons which didn't help much. She was in a way only causing problems for herself as more of the flames begun to catch on her coat too which she didn't pay much heed to as she cared more about trying to help this bigger Gembound.

Pippy soon had to cover her ears to drown out the scream of agony this large Gembound screeched. Recoiling at the loud sound and soon leapt out of their way with a squeak as they instantly dashed somewhere else, each step causing quite the mini earthquakes for one as small as Pippy, and immediately she lost her balance and tumbled flat onto the ground.

There were still some shockwaves on the ground which caused Pippy to lose her standing again as she tried to pick herself back up but soon the magnitude of the shakes weakened, and she managed to get herself to fully stand back up looking on she saw the Gembound trying desperately to get the fire of them. It must be excruciating which makes her look in with pity for them and she goes to dash over to them herself hoping to try and fan at the flames again with her wings.

Although soon her help wasn't needed it seems before she managed even to reach this other Gembound there was a sudden intense wave of - well, something. With how it felt what with her having to press her wings down onto the ground, so it didn't push her away she wouldn't be surprised if it was another mini-earthquake. But the force of it came from the air instead of the ground and the fire that was previously biting away at the other Gembound's flesh like bugs are gone instantly, and the feeling in the air just generally felt different.

Pippy is overjoyed that this Gembound here is OK, well somewhat anyway the fire is gone from them, but the poor thing seemed to be in such agony, so she continued in approaching them hoping to perhaps help them in any form of way. She was in front of their slumped form eventually, the closeness and more specifically their eyes being in front of Pippy now was very daunting for her, but she tries to push that away although her body language was tense enough to show she was a little scared of them.

"M-Maybe... W-What's an m-moth? Heh. I-I'm a bat... I m-mean no- I mean a-are you a-alright?" She was so flustered right now, quite a little bit shaken to what just happened to this Gembound it all took place so fast, and their size certainly isn't helping but her concern for them makes her wish to know if they are for certain alright.

She is tempted to pat their beak with her wing some perhaps comfort them but perhaps with how painful that seemed any sort of contact may make the burning feeling worse. She may possibly do something like that, anything to possibly comfort them after that harrowing ordeal if it has her shaken they must be pretty shaken too since they're the one who'll got engulfed in flame.

@Amras

To his eternal surprise the moth spoke back to him, a correction and a compassionate inquiry. The gryphon turned his head ever-so slightly to face the small creature, seeing now that it was, indeed, a bat. A tiny bat at that- even smaller than the newly emerged one that had fallen into the tornado.

'I'm okay, I only hurt my pride' he wanted to say, but the bat would no doubt see right past that lie. How old was it? The creature was tiny yet he hadn't heard any cracks to indicate the emergence of a new gembound anywhere nearby.

"I will be okay." he opted to reply instead, gathering magic together for an initial treatment to dull the pain.

His gem did not glow for this application. This Recovery spell was, for him at least, not so much a spell in the traditional sense but a nonstandard application of the raw essence of magic. The unique force that was so prevalent in the caves came together and infused itself in different parts of his body, manifesting not as any single element but as something... different.

From Pippy's point of view the individual hairs and down feathers on the gryphon's body would begin subtly moving of their own accord. Scabs like milky quartz would start forming over most of the open wounds incurred from the fire before dissolving into a crystalline dust and falling away to nothingness, leaving behind flesh that had been made whole again. From Amras's point of view the pain running throughout his body would begin to lessen, not enough to where he felt completely better but enough that he could at least move without going through excruciating pain.

"Yeah, I'll definitely be okay." he spoke again with a bit more strength, shifting into a slightly more comfortable sprawl. "I'm sorry if I gave you a scare with my carelessness, little one. My name is Amras, a researcher of magic and the elements."

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Empty	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Pippy
notes: None

When they turned their head towards Pippy a bit more she gave them a small wave with her wing as to provide them with a greeting, her stuttering seems to be particularly bad right now, so perhaps silent gestures will be a bit preferable for a short while.

Pippy's small size is deceiving enough as to what her age is, her personality of an innocent and scared young child doesn't help matters either, they all lead to an indication that she is young even though Pippy is technically an adult Gembound as of right now.

"O-Oh... A-Are y-you sure? Can I... Help in any way?" She doesn't know how she can help them, but the tiny bat wants to regardless that looks painful after all. Pippy moved back a little bit feeling tense as she felt an odd chill in the air, something cold was hitting against her skin, and she didn't know what it was.

She soon saw this big Gembound's whole coat moving on its own like there was a significant breeze of wind. That would make sense especially the chill Pippy has, but that isn't the case, so she lifted one wing up and moved it a little to try and feel for any strong winds. While there is, of course, some air, they'd have a problem if there wasn't any after all but she doesn't feel any powerful gusts that would be capable of blowing away her tiny form or moving this here's Gembound's coat for that matter. There's some other force at play here causing this, and it's not the wind.

Next some odd looking particles, or is it dust maybe? She isn't sure but it's collecting itself around the bigger Gembound's coat, or on a further look the burn wounds and soon when they vanished the wounds were completely closed with almost no sign that an injury was there previously. Which Pippy was quite pleased about, they seem to be doing better with that. Must've been Magick then, such a thing always manages to surprise her.

"Oh! That's good then!" Again she was tempted to pat perhaps their beak or something but this time she wishes to respect their boundaries. Especially since now that they are OK her concern isn't needed as much, and so her fear is taking over a bit more despite how lax they currently are.

"O-Oh it's OK... Must've been painful there..." she doesn't blame them there really, even from a slight distance that fire was painful on Pippy's eyes from how bright it was and it seems that some of her furs have burned away from it too.

"O-Oh hello, then Amras. I-I'm Pippy, and I'm a... well I'm not sure... Just a tiny bat I suppose?" She wasn't sure, while she is hoping to be better at crafting to make her little dens more cosy to live in she isn't confident about herself. Still research Magick? They must know lots about Magick then!

"You research Magic? Sounds interesting! H-How much do you think you've learned so far about Magic? I uhh only know two Spells I think... Heh," Pippy was so fascinated about this, Amras here must know so many spells that she wouldn't know what to use!

@Amras

The great gryphon's wings shifted as he stretched them to fold properly back into place, fixing a few of the feathers ruffled by the clamorous retreat from his former resting spot. With the bulk of the pain washed away by his magic, only a lessened sensation of soreness remaining, he was able to really focus on the other gembound before him.

A bat, as had been pointed out and observed before. About the smallest sentient creature he had ever laid eyes on, even more so than most newly emerged gembounds and even more so than the loud monkey from the spider incident. Their voice conveyed a timid nature, no doubt learned from living in such a huge world. Amras, by comparison, was among the larger gembounds- only slightly smaller than a full grown lion and dwarfed only by a few giant gembound. As a gesture of understanding the gryphon held out a talon in an offering for the small bat to rest while still being at eye level.

"It is good to meet you, Pippy." he replied in a soft tone, "Don’t worry about your current lack of finite direction though. That simply means that there are still many paths open to you."

It seemed that Amras was getting a soft spot for small creatures these days between all the youths he had tried to help and now Pippy. Thiers was a life full of potential but with greater difficulty attaining confidence. Theirs was a life with unique challenges he could never hope to understand. Who in his place wouldn't do all they could to bring them strength and bolster their resolve?

"I do know many spells, but it was not always that way." he continued on, "When I emerged the cave was full of darkness and sounds of wind, and only when I created shockwaves was I able to sample light like there is now. To tell the truth with two spells you may have already beaten me, I was almost fully grown by the time I learned my second spell."

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Empty	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Pippy
notes: None

Pippy was initially a bit intimidated when Amras' wings stretched for a brief moment before they got folded, it for a second gave off the illusion that Amras was a lot bigger than he was and they were already massive to Pippy, so it was a bit frightening. It was thankfully brief, but it was still quite surprising.

Pippy tilted her head in puzzlement at Amras when they placed one of their talons out, she at first didn't quite understand why they placed it there. She got closer to it feeling pretty curious, reaching out to it with her wing and curling it around one of the claws. Wait, did they want to greet her with a 'wing-shake' or something; believing this to be the case Pippy immediately starts to give of one the claws on their talons a small shake with her wing and soon withdrawing it.

Although Pippy soon seemed to realise why Amras laid their talon out like that, perhaps she figured it out, or she wanted to avoid her neck from feeling sore from craning it to make eye contact better. Pippy soon began to clamber up on Amras' talon; it'll be preferable for Pippy if Amras doesn't move that talon at all while she's trying to climb up it that may scare her to leap off, although movement will be OK when she successfully managed to climb up on it and relaxed.

"Good to meet you too Amras," the stuttering was finally beginning to go away more so Pippy's speaking was a little more confident sounding. "Oh! I... Haven't thought of that. Thank you Amras," after all she keeps on thinking she has all Magick has to offer than to be proven wrong each time with a new unknown Spell she had never seen before.

"Oh? Really?" She suspected that in a way but it was still a little surprising for Pippy. The mention of the caves being in darkness again made her shudder since Amras looks so much older than her they must be talking about the first time it was in the dark, the one Zeno mentioned to her.

"Oh, you mean like the d-darkness that happened recently?" the one stutter she couldn't help there, the caves suddenly being in darkness was especially frightening to Pippy and caused her to be extremely anxious.

"Shockwaves sound neat! O-Oh? Hmmm, never thought of it that way either... D-Do you know how one can learn a new Spell?" That's one issue with Pippy is that she hasn't the slightest clue on how to learn a new Spell, maybe she somewhat figured out how to do that when she saw Oliver making the rocks light and slightly managed to do it herself from watching them use that Spell.

@Amras

With a gentle movement Amras raised his talon to eye level, close enough to speak but far enough away that his face would not completely cover the small gembound's vision. His expression stayed soft, and his voice in turn would continue to hold a light tone. This was now a time of recovery, and having company for it was a nice surprise.

"The darkness we just experienced was deep but short-lived. With any luck it will stay away this time, but if not then we may have to find ways of making our own light instead."

He had already littered sections of Monoceros with glowing dust in his experimentation, and with the size of even that room it barely made a difference. How much time, he wondered, would it take to produce lights all along the pathways of the caves? Could it even be done? Next time the lights went out, if they went out again, he would have to make that his project.

"Magic is different for every gembound, with the only thing it ever has in common being how untamed it is at its most basic level. Most of the time it does as you wish but sometimes... well you saw what can happen if it lashes out. Even so I believe it to be a worthwhile pursuit."

Being very careful to hold Pippy steady he reached out with his free talon to pick up a pebble from the ground, a fragment no larger than the first item he had ever babbled so many cycles ago.

"Learning new spells by extension also unique to each gembound. For the last one I interacted with new spells are created by a manifestation of desire. For another I have spoken with the spells appear for no discernable reason, perhaps out of instinct. For me magic is a very precise work, I have to transmute and shape the spell according to rules I have learned over time."

The gryphon's gem emitted a soft glow as once again a mostly transparent white aura of energy gathered around the talon holding the pebble and began to cling to the rock. The energy began to move and twist until in an instant it changed color from white to a light yellow. The shaping phase done Amras allowed the spell to manifest into being, infusing the pebble with that soft yellow light.

"At this point I know over a dozen spells, but this was among the first. It still holds a special place for me as a reminder of how I got started on this path."

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Empty	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Pippy
notes: None

Pippy squeaked just a little when Amras lifted the talon she was perched on, it was just a bit surprising for her especially since it looked almost like the ground itself was falling when she looked down, but thankfully not scary so she it didn't put a downer on her relaxed state. Besides this level that Amras placed her with was pleasant, now she won't need to crane her neck to make eye contact now, which was very sweet of them. She expressed her contentedness in a way by happily giving them another wave with her wing to greet them again with that they can see her better too before putting her the limb back down and getting relaxed still. Pippy will be happy to accompany them also.

"Y-Yeah, hopefully, it'll not go dark again, I mean I do have a light rock in my den though so maybe it'll help not make it so scary next time, hopefully, there won't be 'next time' though," she'd prefer not go through that again. It was the out of nowhere suddenness that just terrified Pippy, after all, one second she could see many colours around her, the next second she was trapped in nothingness, and it was because Equinox was around that she managed to calm down. She'd rather not chance the possibility of them going out again when she's out her den and no nice bigger Gembound is around to help her feel safe. She may need to make some lights herself in Orion to prepare for that.

"Oh different?" she suspected that somewhat since each encounter she learns about a new Spell after all. She nodded at the mention of it being very fickle to handle; Pippy does recall the few times she tried Magick for the first time only for nothing to come which initially lowered her confidence a little. Still, Pippy had to agree with it being a worthwhile regardless; she was determined to improve her skills in Magick.

"Yeah, I want to pursue some of Magick myself, it's fascinating really," it was indeed, and it's why she can't ignore it, same with wanting to learn how to fly really.

"Hey Amras, you said it's different for every Gembound. D-Do you think it has to do with how every Gembound's Gem is different from each other?" Pippy does wonder this, after all, if it's apparently the essence of where all the Magick comes from and the very cores of their own lives it could be possible.

A pebble it is, but it was like an actual rock to Pippy maybe about the same size as her own light rock Oliver gave her.

"Ohhhhh I see. Hmm, I guess for me it's 'desire' although maybe I need to learn some more rules as I don't know well what Spells there is. I keep on thinking that I have seen all there is to see about Magick then I see someone new who has a Spell I've never seen before." An issue was that Pippy didn't have a clue what kind of Spells she could learn and so has no idea what to 'desire' until she had learned the Spell.

"I do have one rule, it may be basic though it's just relaxing all my muscles except for the ones that my Gem is around, as some way to focus on just my Gem while having a 'desire'," it has helped so far, it seemed to even be helpful for Oliver when she told them about this method.

Pippy's eyes sparkled with such wonder while breathing a gasp from how much awe she is feeling of seeing the pebble start to glow so brightly in Amras' other talon. Yes, she had seen this Spell before and knew it herself but it still looks magnificent to witness, and she just can't hide her excitement how pretty it seems!

She loves pretty lights!

"Pretty!" she happily chirped her voice a little higher pitched from how excited she is.

"Oh, nice! Must be very important then. I think I know this Spell!" it sure looked like the one she learned from watching Oliver make lights when in darkness.

@Amras