As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
"Trash... trash," Thothaga sighed dismissively as she chucked two pieces of rusted metal off to the side. "Oh, look," She paused, reaching for something interesting-- more corroded metal. Her eyes dulled and she tossed it behind her. "More trash."

Dejected, Thothaga sat back on her abdomen, and slouched as much as a spider could. Oliver's glowing kyanite shard dangled from her gem's peak like an ornament wrapped in web, a testament to her first friend. Her back leg snapped it from its tether and passed it to the front. She held it up to her eight eyes, studying the special trinket. She wanted to that, make it glow. There were a lot of things she wanted to do with magick, but so far, she could only tap into fleeting images of the past.

Suddenly, a glimmer among the rust grabbed her attention. What's this? She reattached the trinket and crawled over to where believed she saw it. Soft light from Oliver's shard washed over the cervices, and revealed something strange. Thothaga inched closer and carefully rolled it out. Her pedipalps twitched with astonishment. It was clear, glassy orb, no bigger than a cave rat and perfectly round. There was no why this came from the rock. It was too.. unnatural. What is this thing?? It certainly wasn't a gem. Thothaga picked it up with her fangs and felt its smooth surface. She drew in the magicka around her and tried to connect with its past. Perhaps it would shed a clue.


"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

A shimmering flash fills Thothaga's mind, and for a moment it is as if this area is brightly-lit. The rock is suddenly warmly-glowing, and balls not dissimilar to the one she holds hang from the length of the roof. No--it isn't the crevice; it's the tunnel itself, just outside it.

Silhouettes can be seen briefly moving there--their shapes impossible to make out past the bright light, but they're stretching upward, touching the lights--perhaps placing them there, or maybe damaging them.

The image shifts before details can be discerned.

Now there's a surge of violence: a fight, two large, scaled creatures snarling and battling, their vast size taking up the entire breadth of the tunnel. A ridged tail strikes the glass ball. It falls, rolling into a corner; the crevices go dark as it slips out of sight into the half-hidden area where it's lain to this day. Its light goes out.

There's a dizzying sense of an immense passage of time, as if this occurred impossibly long ago, and then the vision fades.

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
Thothaga soon snapped to her senses, still holding the glass orb. The images still echoed in her mind. The vision had gave her more questions that it answers, but at least she knew one thing. It used to glow.

She dropped it on the ground and gave it a gentle, curious tap with a front leg. I made Oliver's silk-gift glow, I can make it glow again.

Like before, she summoned the magicka to her gem and imagined a light grow inside it. Suddenly, a painful spark popped from the orb and blinded her front eyes. "AH!!" She screamed, jumped back, and huddled against the wall.

As the blindness lingered, Thothaga began to panic. There was a large blind spot in the front and obscured most of her vision. Frantically she tried to rid herself the of dark and yellow spots form her view by wiping her eyes, but it was not something that could be scraped off.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga's eyes had always been sensitive to light, but this was the first time they became overwhelmed and blinded. Her vision did not return completely until what seemed like ages, but when it did, Thothaga finally crept from her corner, relieved that it was not permeant.

Thothaga shuffled through the debris and found the orb again. She wondered if she should try again. It would be useful to have something to light up the dark parts of the cave. Thothaga bent down and picked it back up with her fangs. If it should spark again, it would be underneath her where she could not see it.

Careful... give it light.
But nothing happened...

Thothaga let it drop to the ground, feeling somewhat disappointed. I will try again later. She rolled the orb back towards her abdomen and wrapped it in silk with her back legs. She stuck it to fur on her back as she continued digging through the piles of scrap metal. From the vision the orb gave her, Thothaga was beginning to wonder if this "trash" where perhaps relics of the past.

What stories could they hold?

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

The vision replayed in her head, two giant scaled monsters- or perhaps gembounds, entangle in a vicious duel. Over what? She could not tell. Thothaga practically felt the entire tunnel shake beneath their enormous weight. The orb was lucky to have not been smashed, and had laid there, untouched for countless ages until she came along.

Thothaga peered down at the rusted pieces of scrap metal. There were so many, she did not know which one to touch first. Her leg hovered the unpolished relics. She wished she could peer into all of them at once. She want to know everything about the past that once used them. Finally, Thothaga pressed her claw against a rusted breastplate. To the spider, it looked like large, metallic scale from a beast, perhaps the one from her vision.

There was only one way to find out.


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

The scene bloomed slowly.

The armor piece in Thothaga's possession seemed to glint and flicker with reflections that were not there. Lights flashed over its surface--yet the tunnel was still.

Sound grew from silence, a low roar that erupted into clashing metal and roars of defiance.

Of rebellion. The words were hard to make out, muffled, yet their meaning was somehow clear. Should she look up from the glinting of the metal into the tunnel beyond, she would see dust raised in clouds, figures moving within--alien figures, and unalike--battling.

Cries of defiance, versus cries of loyalty.

Slowly, they faded, leaving only the empty, silent tunnel--and Thothaga, with her piece of its history.

@Thothaga

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

The armor told her of a rebellion. The fate of its original owner was unclear, but from the mounds of bones in Canis, probably not good. The scaled beasts and the warring factions, they all happened in long before her, and lost to time. The caves have seen their far share of blood, and Thothaga wondered if it would happen again.

The breastplate belonged on a body part she not posses, at least not in that form. Still, she wrapped web the piece and tied it around her abdomen. I will find it another purpose. It had a useful shape, she could carry things on it, or use it like a protective shield. The spider shuffled through the old, rusting relics, wondering how many were used in that rebellion.

As she crossed through the tunnel, one of her legs knocked over a metal scap, and revealed something shiny underneath. Thothaga stepped back, its glimmer catching her sensitive eyes. It was gemstone.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Rolling for magical presence...

Thothaga has found a glinting, multi-faceted Alexandrite stone. When the orb-light hits it from one direction, it shines in various tones of purple; from other angles, it appears to be a watery blue-green. Though she cannot tell, should she attempt to revive it, she will find that the stone holds no magic.

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga rolled the stone closer to her. It did not feel as energized as her own gem, but it was very beautiful.Perhaps it belonged to a rebellion gembound. She thought. Thothaga had no to urge to revive it, but she did pick it up with her fangs. It was not every day she found a gemstone still beautiful. It would be a decoration, for now.

Oliver's baubled shard swayed as she tilted downward. Its soft light washed over the shadows cast beneath the twisted armor pieces and something glinted underneath.
"Hmm? Another?" Thothaga pushed the metal pieces aside and found, indeed, another stone.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Rolling for magical presence...

Thothaga finds a polished, glittering metallic Fledgling (+1) level Hematite, which once belonged to a strange hybrid between a European Wild Boar and an Rose-Ringed Parakeet.

The stone's glossy black surface seems almost liquid, or wet, like a black eye staring up at her.

@Thothaga