Far from the noise and splendor of Pisces' grand waterfall, a small stone chrysalis sat tucked underneath the safety of the various crags and outcroppings near the ridges. Inside of the chrysalis was a tiny fox with sandy yellow fur, and large ears. He would stir every now and then, Would the creature emerge from his multi-coloured prison?

"What am I?" It thought, still not able to open his eyes.

The being inside of the stone chrysalis stirred some more, his left foreleg extended, and the small fox's eyes opened.

He soon figured out what he was. He was trapped! For a moment, terror and panic started to take hold of him. What came before his imprisonment? What would come after? He tried to writhe about, but found that movement beyond errant twitching was all but impossible. He tried to gasp to scream, but the small being couldn't muster even a hoarse squeak.

Suddenly, he noticed that his crystal prison was starting to crack and split apart. Air rushed into his chrysalis via the cracks that had formed. The creature gasped loudly as the air of the cave filled his tiny lungs. Although still immobilized by his now marred chrysalis, escape was within his grasp.

The tiny fox felt a surge of energy course throughout his body as one word echoed in his mind over and over; freedom. He needed to break free. He needed to escape the confines of this multi-coloured prison.

"Freedom!" He hollered, writhing about within his gemstone prison.

Ever since the kit had joined Maji Walezi, she had learnt a ton of things from Bevy birby especially. The bright-eyed, sharp orange and black critter had taught her how to keep the waterfall clean and help the tribe flourish by making use of her health-giving magic. Since then, Quix had taken it upon herself to climb over different ledges as a sort of phsycial exercise to burn off her energy, as well as to clean out the bacteria from the disgusting ponds just so that she could contribute to the welfare of everyone here. It was either that or the other, or else she was off exploring, and today, climbing ledges it was.

The energetic ball of fur had woken up with a start, to yet another bright, cheery day! And then barking and scampering around the feet of larger gembounds, she had grown bored and decided to mount the ledges by the ridge on her own accord. Twitching her fluffy ears, she looked upwards now and saw how slippery they were. She would try though! Valiantly, she bunched her tiny muscles and pushed her lithe body upwards. Up, up, up she went, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

From the corner of her eye then, she spotted a shiny thing! It was beautiful! Lots of colours radiated everywhere and ... it was calling out ... to her? With a yip, the girl skidded over and wagged her tail furiously. She brought her head level with the egg and purred at it. “New gembound! Come out, come out!" she encouraged it, and following that, raised a paw and tapped at the gem. This was so exciting!

Again, as he struggled in his trappings, he continued to shout and whirl himself about inside of it. He bit his lip hard and shut his eyes, trying his hardest to not slip into a state of despair and terror. He felt the rush of energy flow over him again. What was this sensation?

Was there someone else there? The taps against the exterior of his chrysalis were much louder inside of the cracked prison he was still trapped inside of. Whomever was with him was trying to communicate with him, but between his own panting and yelping he couldn't make out what the tiny voice was trying to tell him.

He knew that panicking wouldn't get him out of his situation, so the tiny fennec began to focus, trying his hardest to clear his mind. His mind focused on the iridescent, semi-transparent, multi-colored stone around him, and with all of his might; both physical and his unknown arcane strength he fought against his crystal bonds.

"What about whatever's out there?" He thought to himself, remembering that something was outside of his chrysalis, that may or may not be friendly.
"That's a problem for future you, one thing at a time!" His mind continued to race. He needed to calm himself. After taking a brief moment to collect his wits, he readied himself for another attempt to break free.

"FREEDOM!" he shouted, not really knowing he was attempting to channel his inane magical abilities.

With a brief flash of light that seemed to glow with every colour, the crystal prison shattered around Al-Addir, the shards falling from the ledge harmlessly to the cavern floor below. The fennec fell to the floor of the ledge he was sitting upon with a slight thud. He panted as he laid on his stomach for a moment. He took another deep breath and looked up at his companion on the ledge.

He was silent for a moment, before addressing the fennec that was tapping on his prison.

"Are you okay?" He asked, as he righted himself, rising to his feet.

The thing inside responded to her tapping! Quix yipped a couple of times and twitched her large ears, then scampered one round around the crystal. She loved anything that moved and was mysterious and this was the perfect scenario to her! She was unwrapping a “present” of sorts and the contents were still unknown to her. Oh, the girl loved such things that broke the monotony of life. Again, she sniffed around the colourful, translucent crystal and gave a couple more barks, as though to alert those around her that a new baby was going to emerge.

There was a moment of stillness then, and Quix worried for a moment that the gembound had given up. Her ears flattened against her skull as she crept back and stared at it wistfully. Without warning then, there was a flash of light and the fox scrambled backwards against the ledge, excited yet cautious all the same. The bits of rocks flew everywhere and the girl tried to avoid them.

The girl dodged as one particularly large chunk flew at her and she emerged unscathed. The chrysalis had fully broken then and several pieces fell to the floor before there was silence. With a giggle, the girl wagged her tail and approached the newborn, only to be astonished that the bundle of pale sandy fur and brown shades was not unlike her own! She barked excitedly at him as he spoke!

“You can speak too! Yes I am okay!” She brought her nose close to the boy to sniff him all over, then retracted and danced about the ledge, her tiny claws click-clacking on it. “You same as me!” She was so excited! He could speak! When she was born, she could too. However, some were less developed, like the birb she had seen not long ago. If he could speak then…he’d understand her. Sitting upon her haunches, the girl looked at him bright-eyed. “What’s your name? I’m Quix!” She chuffed and made a variety of other cute mewling sounds, waiting for him to respond.

Al-Addir looked around his new surroundings. The waterfall on the far side of the cavern he was in roared loudly, and filled the air with a mist that made it heavy. The tiny fennec nibbled his lip for a moment, as he slowly paced around, slowly in a circle.

He looked at his companion once more, and smirked a little. He looked into one of the shards of his former prison, catching his own reflection for a moment. He turned back to Quix and smiled.

"Except you got head things." He replied after a moment, gesturing at the other fennec's crystal horns with his nose, giggling a little.

She asked his name, didn't she. He had to think for a moment. "I think..." He thought for a moment. "I'm not sure why, but my name is... Al-Addir." He paused. "I think that was my name before... before..." He trailed off, looking around the underground oasis.

"But I can't remember anything else..." Al-Addir paused, sighing slightly as he looked back to Quix. "Or if I actually remember anything..."

The tiny fox sighed, grumbling to himself, as he surveyed the cave. A rush of air through one of the tunnels that branched out of the caverns made an ominous howl that made Al-Addir skitter back from the edge.

He flopped down on the ledge and looked up to Quix. "I don't even know where I am... Can I go with you if you get off this ledge, Quix?" Asked the tiny fennec.

The young fluffy fennec gembound got up and paced about to view his reflection in his broken chrysalis bits, then pointed out their differences. She curled her furry tail around her tiny paws and chuckled as he giggled at her head-things. Yes! She liked how unique they were, and sometimes, they'd even glow when she channelled her magic! She nodded solemnly as he proceeded to tell her his name in a perfectly literate manner. “Al Addir!" she yipped, testing his name on her tongue. It sounded perfect. “We all don't! Our first memories form once we hatch, Al," she spoke in bright tones as he tried to recollect things from the past which Quix presumed they didn't have. She was bright and chirpy, and also, perfectly content with her life here on Origin to complicate it with such questions!

A gust of wind blew at the disgruntled male and he skittered back. Immediately, Quix got up and attempted to shelter him with her body, having been used to the cave. She chuckled and grinned at him fondly. “Aren't you a shy one." She was feeling rather perky and playful at the moment and she had to admit - he was a cute little thing, currently smaller than her due to being a freshly hatched gembound. As he spoke, the blue-eyed girl jumped up and down, and let forth a couple of excited yips and barks. Of course he could join! She was so happy to have another playmate! “We're at Pisces! Waterfall area. My tribe's here. We call ourselves Maji Walezi. You can join! Good gembounds, good leader. Leader's Cancer, he is larger than us and black. Good for rides and protection." She didn't expect him to be so attached to her and she pleased her immensely.

The girl crouched down and jumped off the ledge. She landed smoothly and whirled around one like a little ball of fur before stopping. The jump wasn't too steep, Al would make it! "Come on down, Al! You can do it!" she yipped at him and wagged her tail, encouraging him to follow suit. Following that, they could get some grub.

The tiny fox smiled as Quix parroted his name. She seemed nice, and Al-Addir felt safe with her. She seemed to know the ins-and-outs of this strange place. When she moved to cover him with her body he nuzzled up against her for a moment.

Quix's comment about his shyness made him blush under his fur a little. Maybe he was a little shy, but then again he had just entered this strange world. He still had so many questions, but for now he would hold his tongue.

She had mentioned she was part of a tribe, he looked up at her with a bit of a puzzled look. "Maji Walezi?" Al-Addir asked, trying his hardest to not butcher the words as he spoke. "So there's others? Who's Cancer? Is he like us or something different?" Then came the torrent of questions; Al-Addir had stopped himself when he noticed that Quix had already descended from the ledge.

He nodded when Quix encouraged him. He was tempted to leap down from the ledge like his current companion, but instead opted to approach the edge of the ledge backwards, clinging to it as he gingerly lowered himself down to the cavern's floor. When he let go of the edge, he hit the ground after a roughly foot's drop with a bit of a thud and a slight yelp.

"There we go." He said, smiling as he clamored back onto all-fours. "Could you take me to where your tribe is?" He asked, nibbling his lip for a moment as he trotted behind Quix, glad to have made a new friend so easily.

The fennec let Al-Addir get the hang of everything - letting him raise concerns without breaking through his thought process even till she jumped off the ledge. Quix had to chuckle as she saw how he gingerly lowered himself though. He was so adorable and funny! "Cancer's a big cat. Imagine...6 times of yourself! And he's black like um..." Here, she spun around and pointed to the black tip of her tail. The girl continued to move towards the main area where Maji gathered then, and the boy fennec trotted after her. Quix was delighted and chose to slow down such that they walked side by side. She then yelled out after a distance, "Cancer daddy! I've brought someone home!" She yipped and barked to let Cancer know that she was home, and so was Al-Addir.

Cancer had been sleeping on his ledge- more sulking, really. The loss of Makyna's company had been a hard hit to his mood. He hadn't slept well in the days since she'd been gone, and though he didn't like the bear much, he'd admit only to himself that he missed Leon too. He'd gladly relinquish his relationship just to have them back again... if only.

A familiar voice. Quix. He sat up groggily.

"You're so loud, grub." He groaned, easing himself down the narrow steps and to the damp floor of the cave, beside the lagoon. There, he yawned, a loud roar of a sound escaping him, before a smack of his lips finally brought his vision into focus. That's when he spotted the other kit- and his heart clenched in confusion and dread.

He looked like Quix, but paler, and with darker eyes. The cat stepped back, and with a tilt of his head, examined the kit from afar. Big ears, fluffy tail, those same markings...

...Quix wasn't a cat. She was whatever this thing was. Did species matter? Certainly not! Oh, but maybe it did. He fretted a moment, then with a chuff, wordlessly beckoned his so-called daughter to him.

"Who is this? He looks like you, Quix." Had she made a gembound like he had? Impossible. He'd been young, but she was even younger still. Not even the same age he'd been yet. Yellow eyes narrowed on the male kit, looking very disapproving, but it wasn't the pup's fault. No, he suddenly had more doubts- the last link he had to Makyna, shattered. His heart sank. "Guess you're not a hybrid, huh?" He'd sound sweet and gentle, but an undertone to his voice was sad and almost in pain. Oh, how could he have been so foolish?

{ art by fennecfyre } ~ { table by aura . edited by banshee }

Al-Addir gleefully trotted behind Quix as she explained about her tribe's protector. He sounded brave and strong, and if this "cat" was nearly six times the size of him, he must be huge!

Once they arrived at the corner of the cavern that belonged to Maji Walezi, the fennec looked up while Quix addressed their leader. The ebony feline was indeed huge. Al-Addir gulped a bit and sat on his hind legs, looking up at the magnificent horned beast that lorded over the cavern from his parapet.

For some reason he brought his right paw up to his face and a single word left his lips:

"Sir...?" He asked in a confused tone. He had no idea why he just put one pawn upside his head. "Sorry..." He said, glancing off to the side. "I think I used to do that before..." The tiny fox all but whispered. "But I'm not even sure if there was a before.

Al-Addir gave his head a shake as Cancer spoke, if he was speaking with the leader of this tribe, he knew he had to get his head out of the clouds.

"I'm Al-Addir." He replied before Quix could interject. "I'm not sure what I am. I just got out of my prison not too long ago." He explained, looking to Quix. "I would have been trapped forever if it wasn't for Quix, you should give her a metal or something." He said, smirking a little, but looking confused as the words left his lips.

"Sorry, my head's still a bit scrambley. I don't even know what a metal is." he commented, once more shaking his head a bit more vigorously than before.