Discomfort.

It’s a fitting entrance into this world that the first sensations ever experienced are unpleasant. A universal memory, yet one nearly always forgotten as time erodes these feelings away and replaces them with fresh inconveniences. Still, that doesn’t ease the suffering of existence, that tired infinite cycle of procreation, survival, expiration. Each step is wrought with struggle of varying capacity, bound with the guilt of both relative convenience and the price one is willing to pay to run from pain.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that beneath a shadowy overhang of the rocky wall, a child begins to struggle against her chrysalis. A dull thumping could be heard in spurts as her kicks grew more pronounced. Her determination came in waves, flailing against the walls in earnest before pausing momentarily to rest. That safe shell of incubation had become a prison, constricting her on all sides, egging her on in this march to emergence. Light had begun to filter through walls now transparent enough to allow it, and optical nerves had finally developed enough to perceive it. Each of these combined into a single, instinctive prerogative: get out.

And such was the determination of that tiny gembound creature that suddenly, her cloven hooves found purchase on the floor of her cage, and that floor gave way with a sharp crack. It was perhaps not the best of designs for the bottom of her home to be suspended a few feet high, facing the dusty floor, but as she spilled into a much larger prison, she landed with surprising grace onto her hooves. Those spindly, trembling limbs didn’t hold the little body for more than a few seconds before she tumbled down, but such a small weight didn’t hit the rock below with much of an impact. The impact did, however, force the first burning gasp of air out of her lungs, and with it a stream of gunk from her nostrils. She blinks sediment from her soft eyes, vision blurred with the light of the glittering ceiling above.

And so she lives, just another sparkle in a sea of a thousand stars.

The white fawn had come back here to view the place in which he had hatched. It had not been too long ago--a couple of weeks, at the outside--but already, it felt like a lifetime. He was not yet much one for reminiscing, if ever he would be, but some faint draw of nostalgia, of curiosity, had already drawn him back.

Slowly, cautiously, he made his way along the stone, his gait delicate, each step placed with utmost precision. Silver-grey eyes regarded the quartz glittering along Orion's ceiling, streaked down its walls. And where was my stone..? He was having some trouble in locating it. He'd only been a newborn, after all, and this cave was vast, its great distances arcing off into darker depths.

Hmm.

As he picked his way closer to the cliffs, he began to hear a thumping; this instilled in him an instant twinning of fear and curiosity, and he froze, one foreleg lifted to dangle midair as he stared toward the sound. There was a crack, then, and a wet thump, and after a brief hesitation, Pride realized that it might well be a hatching.

His head craned back on his long and slender neck. The cliffs were vast, and he wasn't sure how far the sound had been--but pride flicked through him. Mere stone would not stop him.

Small grey hooves clicked on stone as he began to scramble his way toward the sound, until he'd found a shadowed ledge overhung by dark rock. Beneath, there lay the shattered remains of a crystal, bright translucent violet, and beside that, a creature not unlike himself, still blinking residue from her eyes.

Pride paused, placing all four hooves down primly and observing this creature for a moment. She was smaller than he--though not by a great deal--and darker in color; her gem, he noted with some disappointment, was asymmetrical, not beautifully perfect like his own. Still, there was a glitter to it that was not entirely dissatisfying to look upon. If... tawdry, he thought with a mental sniff of disdain. What a strange word to pluck from the depths of memory, but there it was.

Aloud, he showed only a regal benevolence, offering no sign of his judgements. One had to be proud, after all, and hold themselves well.

"Welcome," he said softly, but clearly, standing as straight and proud as a fawn could. His language was still very primitive, something he was still getting a handle on, though the komodo dragon Reseda had taught him much (though perhaps accidentally) through the mental link she had periodically established.

Light glittered off the diamond at his throat as he lifted his head, looking around once more. She looks a bit like me. I wonder if there are many of us being born, at the moment.

@Karma

Soon after the newly hatched fawn hit the ground, she began attempting to leave it once more. These spindly limbs were a bit difficult to operate, it turned out, and she moved them around in vain for a moment, accomplishing little more than getting grime from the cavern floor stuck to her still-wet fur. She settled for looking around herself for a moment, trying to find some external answer for the perplexing issue of locomotion.

As her eyes cleared, the world around her began to segregate itself within her field of vision from the blur of black and white she first encountered. Overhead, the ceiling was still difficult to look at with newly minted eyes, particularly for a thing that had been enclosed in darkness for such a long time. But aside from the glittering world above, the light seemed to condense somewhere nearer, smaller, and a little less intensely. Focus began to take shape as she turned to look at it, twitching her head abruptly in the awkward way of a fresh nervous system. Vaguely, she registered that she liked to look at it, for it was quite pretty and shiny, even in the context of this beautiful cavern. In the dusk world, this thing was a light come to life, complete with the way that its center gleamed and glittered in the reflection of the ceiling above. Transfixed, the fawn watched as the thing grew larger, momentarily distracted from her mission of movement. As the thing was particularly near her, realization dawned on the child- it wasn’t just some thing, it was alive like she was. And perhaps it could even see what she saw, but from a different direction? Despite these (frankly, alarming) realizations, it immediately occurred to her that perhaps that meant she could learn to mimic this thing, as it certainly seemed to navigate the world better than she could.

She looked down at her own hooves and had begun to piece together that the strange thing possessed similar attributes when he spoke to her. This was rather unnerving for the spotted fawn, as she had not entirely dismissed the notion that it was merely a figment of her imagination until it made a noise beyond her control. She jerked her head back to look at him, on some level understanding that this strange noise was an attempt at communication. She paused, simply blinking at him, deciding how to proceed. Perhaps a more learned creature would regard this instance and revelation with fear, but Karma hadn’t encountered such a feeling thus far.

She attempted to mimic the same word spoken to her, though the result was merely a pair of open-mouthed bleats presented in fairly high pitch. She regarded his stance with interest and decided that if this thing was standing as it observed her, perhaps that was the proper way to go about things. A little more carefully this time, she planted her four hooves in their own place and attempted to stand once more.

Finally, this procedure seemed to work, and she scrambled to her feet. She wobbled but remained upright, most of her attention devoted to her task but still glancing to her visitor with interest (and only partially for reference). Satisfied with her progress, she looked at him and bleated once more, sounding this time just a little more like the “welcome” he had spoken only moments earlier.

@Pride

Pride watched the little one doing her best to stand--wavering, wobbling, just as he had. Some faint measure of good-natured amusement took him, though empathy, as well; his own struggles were not so far in the past, and even now, at times, he stumbled.

When she bleated at him, he tilted his head. He was about to try and explain the idea of language as best he could to a newly-hatched--to try and teach her a word, perhaps--but then she was mimicking his movements, looking from his legs to hers, copying him. His amusement turned a little warmer, and he moved himself to stand broadside, the better for her to view his stance.

"Like this," he offered, voice melodically precise. He didn't know all that many words yet, himself, but the ones he had learned, he practiced. Everything had to be perfect, and beautiful. "It is... not, easy. Walking. Talking, words--are also, not easy," he explained, very slowly, and very carefully. This was as much a fault of his as it was sluggishness for her benefit: he had to pick every word from his memory, cautiously combine them, and form them properly. It still took conscious effort.

For a moment, the white fawn pranced delicately up and down before Karma, showing her just how one picked up hooves and set them down, and how this became that precious thing known as movement. "It does... become. Tiring," he added softly.

"Welcome. Means, hello. And... greetings. I am... Pride. My name, is Pride." All of this was said slowly, gently, the fawn trying his best to nod to himself--but that was nearly impossible, with his anatomy. He stepped cautiously forward, pointing close to Karma's tawny pelt with his nose. "Do you know your name?"

If she did not--and he was unsure how easy or how difficult language was without the mental link Reseda had granted him upon his own hatching--he supposed he could show her where to find grass. It was not lost on him, however, that two little fawns were naked bait for predators, without a protector.

For once, he found himself somewhat concerned that Reseda was not with him. Hopefully, nothing would come for them now.

@Karma

Quite the pair these two made, whether viewed as an evening snack or simply an entertainment for passerby. Either way, she remained entirely unaware of the former possibility, naïve and too distracted by a sense of admiration for the stranger. The feeling only increased as he moved his limbs gracefully, quite clearly done for her benefit. She watched, fascinated, before she began to mimic him, and took a few awkward steps- though in her mind, these were nearly as graceful as his own careful motions.

She had begun to gain a bit of momentum when her hooves met a spot of particularly loosely packed stone, causing the girl to lose her footing and hit the ground once again. To her credit, she didn’t cry out, though this one actually quite stung compared with the first fall. Given, the pain of embarrassment was quite a bit sharper, as she was quite keen to literally follow in the footsteps of the stranger. Certainly, she hadn’t seen him do such an ungraceful thing. Instead, she snorted indignantly, and gingerly returned to her feet, eager to prove herself as a capable little thing, despite current evidence to the contrary.

The younger fawn didn’t understand a word he’d said, but she listened intently, trying to file each syllable into memory. Her ears pricked when he repeated sounds, as surely that meant that those were important sounds. “Weh-come,” she repeated back, “pied.” Though she hadn’t an idea of what these things meant, his soft tone reassured the spotted child that it would somehow be alright to be in the company of a stranger with not a single common word between them. Besides, she’d eventually (somehow, maybe) figure out just what his noises meant. She was surprised when he came closer and shifted her weight uneasily, though her hooves remained still. He looked at her, questioning, and she supposed it was time to produce sounds of her own invention. She thought for a moment, pondering the noises he had made thus far.

“Kah… mahh.” Her eyes twinkled as she accomplished producing sound more or less as it she had intended it. “Kahmah.” Now quite proud of what she’d fashioned, she happily repeated it, intending to convey her feelings of gratitude and familiarity. She relaxed again, and noting his posture, stood up a little taller to match his already majestic stance. She might’ve pulled it off, had those soft brown eyes not given away the effervescence beneath.

Her attention was drawn, with him so close, to the sparkling thing on his chest. Her eyes drifted from stone to stone, curious, before she contorted her neck, trying to tilt her head enough to see her own chest. She was terribly disappointed to discover that hers was not shiny, but instead just plain, light brown fur. Oblivious to the social faux pas of unwanted touch, she extended a delicate black nose to the diamond nearest her, wanting only to only just touch the outermost glittering facet.

Alas, the child overestimated the distance between them, and lost her balance once again, this time tumbling chest first into the ground at his side. Despite her resolve, a soft gasp of pain escapes her as her knees bloody on the rocky floor. This time, she pauses a few moments, starting to feel the weariness of life tug at previously unused muscles. She looks up apologetically, hoping that the white boy wouldn't leave her stranded for her insufficiency.

@Pride of course I'd roll a nat 20 and then a nat 1 xD anyway I adore him

Pride peered, expression patient and calm, as the only very slightly-younger fawn toddled closer. Her language was close enough--likely better than his had been, at first, and he found himself doing his best to commit her name to memory, and to pronounce it carefully.

"Kahma," he repeated back, his voice quietly musical. He did not move as she touched her nose to his stone, though he was a little surprised at someone drawing this close to him. A prideful being, and one who had never had physical contact, Pride found this... strange. He wasn't sure if he should feel honored, or offended, but he had little time to ponder his bewilderment before the poor brown thing collapsed, tottering down onto her knees with a rather unpleasant crack.

Pride winced, despite himself; his instinct, as he leaned over quickly, was to help her up--except he had no real way to do that. Or--well, actually, he did.

He focused for a moment, trying to draw on his magicka to grasp hold of the fawn, to gently lift her up--but it failed, slipping away before he could get a proper grip on it. Instead he grimaced, and lowered himself down to her level, lying before her on likewise-folded spindly limbs.

"Walking. It is not... easy, at first. Hard. Tiring. Easy... after time." Again his language was slow and stilted as he struggled to pick the words with the correct meanings, to string them together and to say them precisely--but even then he couldn't be sure that Karma would even understand him.

He settled for trying, at least, and then waiting, giving her the time she needed to recover. Even now he got tired when wandering about for too long, and he certainly remembered how exhausting it had been to travel when newly-hatched.

@Karma

She listened with interest as he repeated her sounds back, and they sounded even better from his tongue. This did little to ease the sting as she fell only moments later, but she would in later (lonelier) times find herself repeating the same word back to herself- not in her own voice, as with other words, but in his soothing tones.

As the white fawn sank to the ground beside her, the child breathed a sigh of relief. The sound of his soft voice only served to lull her more in this weary state. She yearned to continue attempting this noisemaking business, but the thought of it now simply seemed overwhelming. She was nearly unable to resist the waves of drowsiness washing over her, soothed by the hum of her heartbeat in her ears as it worked hard to fuel a new body with new tasks. Content that her companion wasn’t planning on leaving her at the moment, Karma allowed her weary eyes to close, and stretched to rest her petite jaw on the floor. Only moments later, she dozed off, wavering between clinging to the conscious world and a soothing dark place reminiscent of the chrysalis she had just escaped. Among the black waves of sleep, she was comforted by the presence of her company, linguistic barrier and all.

In the typical way of newborns, only a short period of time passed (though perhaps eternities in the mind of a neonate) before she awoke, now to face the latest crisis of life. A dull ache began to nag at her from an empty stomach, though she didn’t yet understand it. For the first time, she felt a rather more pressing need to communicate with the other fawn. A shadow of frustration passed over her, irritated at being unable to speak, but she quickly preoccupied herself with trying to find a way to ask him about these troubles. Fortunately, this was a need perhaps rendered unnecessary as her stomach rumbled loudly in protest.

Uncomfortable, Karma rearranged her limbs and pushed herself to her feet. The weight of weariness still tugged at her, but resting had served her well. Bright eyes scanned the world around her, registering interesting new rocks and crystals, an entire world prime for exploration. For now, though, her attention returned to the boy, hoping that a questioning gaze would be sufficient to open the door to her mind- namely, the fact that she had no idea how to proceed from here.

@Pride

Pride watched, blinking in some surprise, as the fawn just curled up and fell asleep. His own slender neck turned, grey eyes glancing around Orion as if to seek some help with this strange situation: he had only had one speaking partner thus far in this life, and she had never fallen asleep on him.

Though--he had fallen asleep on her, had he not? After their magic training, he'd coiled around himself, fallen asleep, while Reseda still lay there. She had been there when he woken, and so Pride assumed that this was the correct thing to do: he remained folded on the ground to await her awakening.

Unfortunately, he was young, too, and merely fell asleep as well.

It was her awakening that woke him, too, from his toddler's nap; he lifted his head again, blinking. For a moment he forgot where he was--everything swam; then the sight of the tawny creature, and the shimmering of quartz all around, tugged at his memory and linked to the rest of his mind.

Ahh-... Yes. Kah-ma.

Slowly he stumbled to his feet, still a little gangly and clumsy. As her stomach rumbled, he peered at her flank.

"Hungry?" he asked. "Are you--hungry?" It was something that he had only learned about just recently, himself--a lesson of twisted strands of foliage still fresh in his mind. He looked around, then to the standing fawn, and flicked his tail, thinking. "The--... Burning. Inside, it is--hungry," he offered, and then corrected himself--"Hunger."

Pride then turned, pale coat flashing under the quartz-light as he slowly spun to face the other way. He began to pick his way very cautiously down the stone ledge, turning to peer back at Karma as he went. "Follow; come. I will show you--food. How to stop the--hunger. The burning."

@Karma

Hungry.

If not for the distraction of her stomach, she probably would have beamed. It was only a single word, but to Karma, it was the door opening between her (admittedly rather small) universe and another entirely. That single word may as well have been an entire lexicon, and she clung to it like a child to some shiny trinket. “Hunn-gry,” she repeated, nodding enthusiastically. And so, when her companion turned to leave, she didn’t hesitate to follow, perhaps a little under-cautious in her excitement and given the uneven footing they were navigating.

The gleaming stones all around her continued to capture her attention, almost as much as the glistening white beacon ahead of her. More than once, she stumbled on loose stone here and there, too busy gawking at the world around her to focus on such trivial pursuits as “not plunging face-first into the rocks”. Perhaps it was fate- or more bizarrely, simple coincidence- that had led such an easily mesmerized little creature to develop in a place of such incredible beauty, and fate further still that brought a friendly herbivore to her doorstep. Such complex concepts did not yet plague her thoughts, for she was busy simply basking in the awe of it all- the way that the ceiling changed with every step, as the light caught the crystals in an entirely new way, and much more intriguingly, the way that the white fawn did the same. She found herself wondering about where he had appeared from, not entirely convinced that he wasn’t a shard of the ceiling itself- after all, he did have those curious, beautiful stones around his throat, so similar to those above, yet somehow much more alive. Either way, it was safe to say that whether in regards to the world around her or the boy ahead of her, Karma was entirely starstruck.

What an appropriate way to enter a world without a sky.

Pride moved along quietly, remaining fairly close to the other, toddling fawn, ready to try and pick her up should she fall--using magic, of course. He was a little worried that she might tumble from the cliffs in a tangle of slender limbs, given how starstruck she seemed as she stared all about them, but luckily--by some miracle--she kept her footing.

At length, as they came to the lower portions of the rock, Pride spoke again, delicately. He took the lead, passing her to step gracefully, carefully, to a small patch of rough grass.

"This, you can eat," he explained. He took a small nibble himself, to demonstrate; he chewed, and swallowed. "It is... coarse. There may be more food, in other places. We can search. If you like. But it may be tiring. May be... far. Many-..." He paused, hesitated. Wrong word. "Much, walking."

Pale grey eyes regarded the other fawn; he seemed gently indifferent one way or another, watching her with a bit of curiosity mixed into dutiful patience. He seemed to have decided that Karma was in his charge, and he was not about to simply wander off and leave her to her own devices.

Unfortunate, perhaps, that he himself was but a hatchling--but then, perhaps two were better than one alone, even so.

//exit Pride - pop a new thread anywhere but Canis as mentioned, tag me, ty!
@Karma