Wilder's ears shot up with surprise. Aure had met Black too? Another thing to be friends about! They knew the same dog! She purred deeply. "Wow, that's cool! I wish he'd taught me to glow, that sounds like fun!" Her whiskers twitched with interest as the hybrid's body began to glow. Perhaps the thought that it was, perhaps, not magic but some sort of trick kept her from falling into the trance again but she very much wanted to make her fur glow like that too. "So pretty! You're so pretty! I wish I could glow!"

She tilted her head with confusion at Aure's next words. Why was he saying those things? They seemed to come out of nowhere. Had she said something about her gem not being hers? And why did he think that she thought she was the...the...the...t̷h̶e̸...

"Ohhhhh," she meowed, thoughtfully. That was pretty deep, the memory of someone helping someone else. "I guess he is a father then if he helps you learn. But then wouldn't that make Black a father too?" She suddenly perked up, her eyes glowing. "Wait! Aure! If Black's your father too that'd make us siblings!"

@Aure

"Next time you see him, then," the little one nearly vibrated as he spoke, he was so excited, "you should ask him to teach you! I'm sure he would! I started with mushrooms but he told me that was how his friend did too." Aure clicked his beak excitedly, head bobbing and tilting this way and that as birds did. Unable to take yet another compliment, the hybrid immediately spun it back onto Wilder: "no, you're pretty!" He wasn't lying, either; the little cat was black as night with piercing white eyes and long, white whiskers that danced with every move. "Oh---!" he gasped, lowering his head, "what if you learned to glow pink!" Oh, wouldn't that be fun! Exclamation points!!!

His questions about the Spire seemed ignored, and he was rather content to let that be, so that the little cat would stay in her good mood and not... blink out of existence, or something. "Yeah! Even if he's not around, he still helps me and he helps my mother, too! She sometimes asks the bones questions and they tell her what's going to happen in the future." Someday he'd try to do that, too. Aure passed it off for now, though, since that wasn't the most important part of the conversation. "I don't think Black's my father, though. He told me that he was a 'guardian,' whatever that means. My father's name was Aza'zel." Regardless, that didn't mean they couldn't be siblings.

"But, we could still be siblings, even if we don't have the same father!"

@Wilder

The excitement coming off of Aure was infectious, not that Wilder didn't have plenty before. Whatever worries about losing control she had that had caused the hybrid to get attracted here in the first place were long gone. All that mattered was her friend! What a good friend! If she could she would have been blushing furiously. "Glowing pink sounds like fun! I'd match my eyes and my gem! I should go see Black and ask him! But mushrooms? That sounds cool! I'd like to be able to grow mushrooms!"

Suddenly, an idea came to her head and she stood taller, prouder, and her tail was straight up behind her. "Someday, I'm going to learn how to do everything! Just you watch!" Maybe then she'd get a good mother and father, thinking that it was something to be deserved. Although, she already had a good father so that base was covered.

She wasn't really sure what Aure meant about asking bones but he skated over it so quickly that she didn't have time to ask, nor the attention span to remember to ask at all. Black being a guardian made sense. He seemed the type. Maybe he did that to all young kids - found them and guarded over them after they hatched. Did that mean he wasn't her father? But no, they were both black! He had to be her father? "But how could we be siblings if we have different parents?" Her eyes glittered and her whiskers twitched with excitement. "We can just be really good friends! Best friends!"

@Aure

"Glowing pink would be so cool!" Aure assumed that it was most certainly possible, beak clicking madly as he shook with excitement. "I can only do kind of a pretty yellow glow but I think that's just because I'm kinda yellow," and just to make sure Wilder could see that, he stood upright for a moment, displaying his chest and the black 'V' sprawling across it. "Mushrooms are good and helpful! My mother showed me glowing ones and ones that smell tasty — but don't eat them! They taste super gross." Oh, this was so good! The little wyvern had never met a Gembound as young as him, as eager as him. This much eagerness, if left unchecked, might actually make him explode. He was already jittering. Through the flurry of thoughts in his head, he nodded viciously towards Wilder and her determined stance, sending out a little bit of magicka to maybe present some mushrooms to her.

"I want to learn how to do everything too!" That was a realistic goal for two very small children, wasn't it? Yeah. Aure then skated over every question as quickly as possible because he was training to be a rap superstar, bright eyes flitting this way and that from the stimulation. "Well, best friends works, too! I've never had a best friend before!"

@Wilder

When the mushrooms appeared, Wilder couldn't help but be extremely curious. She leaned forward and sniffed them, smiling with delight at their lovely smell, but then, as she licked it, she realized that Aure was right - disgusting! She shit out whatever saliva had the flavor and licked her paw to clean off her whiskers. "Wow! Those are gross!" But she spoke with an excited tone, as if she had just discovered something truly amazing, not just licked a mushroom.

Wanting to demonstrate something of her own, she accidentally reached back for that side of her that she had been trying to avoid. Within a second, her eyes had gone glassy and her movements had slowed. She turned towards Aure and sat back on her haunches. "T̵h̴i̷s̷ ̵i̵s̷ ̶w̵h̷a̵t̶ ̶I̸ ̶c̴a̵n̸ ̵d̴o̴," she whispered, her voice smooth and dark. As her eyes glanced around a few arcane wisps blazed into existence around Aure. They didn't move, just kind of floated there, burning eerily as Wilder stared almost sightless.

But then the magic cut off and she blinked, her eyes instantly snapping back to normal. They lit up again and she smiled widely, pleased with her demonstration. "Wasn't that cool? I saw someone else do it and learned it all by myself!" Of course, she had no idea how she had learned it, as was the case with all of her spells, but she had done it! And nobody had taught her! That meant she'd done it all by her own, right?

@Aure

Aure had just begun to squeal out a quick "wait—!" when Wilder went ahead and licked the mushroom. With a rather childishly teasing tone, the wyvern's head dipped low and wings flared, laughing, "I told you so!" Clicking his beak a few times in quiet giggles, he lifted his head back to eye-level with the tiny black cat. "Mother told me that they're good for keeping away mean things that want to eat you! She said that she once fought these weird lizard things and put these mushrooms on a bear so they'd stop attacking." A good strategy, if Aure said so himself — which he did.

Then, Wilder got weird-ish again, voice dark and crackling like the nearly tangible layer of magicka Polaris carried. Her gaze grew distant, but little blue 'fireflies' blinked into existence, surrounding him. Despite the aura of wrong, Aure couldn't help but to chirp, "oh, that's cool!" He wanted to do that! He already could glow… so that meant he could make floating lights, right? He was too distracted to try it right then and there, though; currently, the little one was preoccupied with giving all the praise the world had to offer: "that's was so cool! Could you teach me how to do that? We could be firefly buddies! Good job!"

@Wilder

Wilder nodded enthusiastically and giggled at the compliment. "They're not fireflies, silly, they're little light balls! Or little fire things! But they're so pretty!" Her tail waved merrily in the air as she got up closer to Aure and sat down next to him. She was in such a state of glee that it continued to pass over her mind that she could easily fall into another trance if she continued to use magic like this. It just didn't seem possible - she was too happy to just be swept away for more then a second!

She put a paw down in front of her and stood taller, impressively. "So. You take a deep breath. You think about fire! Yeah, but its fire from your mind!" She gestured by taking her other paw and placing it against the side of her head. "Yeah so you think about mind fire! And then you just...m̷̤͝à̸͉g̷̉͜i̶͉̓c̷͓͋!" At the throaty call a few more wisps popped up in front of her. The voice didn't last any time at all and she was soon hopping forward again to pass through her little candle, which flickered and disappeared. "You try it, its easy!"

@Aure

"Aren't fireflies both of those?" The wyvern tilted his head, peering down at Wilder in bewildered confusion. As far as he knew, lightning bugs were most certainly little balls of light that glowed thanks to fire. Aure shook his head, then nodded, "they are pretty, though!" They truly were! He listened closely to the black cat's instructions, then watched in pure wonder as wisps appeared from thin air. The blue lights flickered into being, dancing side to side as Wilder jumped through them. Aure sidestepped a little as his new best friend scampered through her lights, not wanting to accidentally be bowled over.

So, it was easy apparently. That didn't sound too bad! "Okay, I'll try it!" Then, the hybrid lowered his head and set to focusing on fire and his deepest thoughts. At the forefront came his desire to actually confront his brother about the death of their father, and Aure gasped. A bolt of magicka shot through his stone unwittingly and the air around the alcove stirred. Immediately, the wyvern cut off the flow of magicka; but, it was too late. A small tornado had already been summoned inside the den. Squealing in surprise, Aure whirled around and shook his head. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that---" an excited edge came to his voice as he hopped carefully towards Wilder, "---but I didn't know I could!" For Caves's sake, it was wind magic like the Bone King's!

Back in reality, suddenly, Aure looked down at his friend and gestured with his beak towards the den's wall, then the exit. Shouting over the storm, he tucked his wings as tightly as he could (lest they catch any air and throw him this way and that,) "we gotta get to the wall or outta here! Sorry!!!" He'd do his best to take most of the dust devil's force, but the effectiveness was debatable considering he was only half-grown and -fluff.

@Wilder

Wilder hopped with surprise at the sudden tornado racing through her little den. Suddenly she was faced with an option - stay in and possibly get hurt from the tornado or go outside and face the Sp...face that thing. It was an easy choice, though, for her. She dived into the corner of the cave and pressed herself against the wall. However, she wasn't so lucky. She was just too tiny and too light to keep herself safe from the wind. It pressed against her legs and threw her off balance. With a cry, she tumbled forward right into the tornado and was picked up by the wind. It slammed her into the wall and she was instantly knocked unconscious as her head hit the wall hard.

She fell back to the ground, limp, and the wind tossed her into a corner she hadn't chosen and her body caught on a rock until the spell wore off.

@Aure

Oh. Oh no. This was bad!

While the larger, somewhat heavier hybrid could make it to the wall and hold his ground, Aure hadn't quite considered just how light his little friend was. Within seconds, Wilder had been flung into the dust devil and then the wall. Not that she could hear him, he cried out her name. Inching along the wall, careful not to get swept up into the tornado as well. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make the winds stop. So, air magic was out the window.

Fungi, maybe?

The wyvern finally made it over to Wilder's prone body, spreading his wings slightly to protect her from any flying debris and pebbles; simultaneously getting pelted by the dang things. Oof, ouch, owie. Screwing his eyes shut, Aure tried to focus in on his magic, to bring forth a whole mess of mushrooms that could possibly buffet the winds, sort of like how trees blocked them. Slower than he would have liked --- but surely --- glowing blue mushrooms began to fruit from the earth, swelling ever-larger before their billowing caps opened and tendrils poured from the edges. Within a few minutes, a veritable wall of the bodies had formed around Aure and Wilder, swaying gently in the violent windstorm.

In another few minutes, the tornado had died out and Aure could trust himself to relax again. Peering down at his friend put him in a whole new state of hysterical mother-henning. "Wilder?" He chirped softly, leaning down and poking at the little black cat's cheek and stone. Pricking his ears forwards, he put his head on her chest, listening for a heartbeat or breathing. Any indication to make sure that the cat was at least alive!

@Wilder