pounding. like a heart beating out of one's chest, somehow both internal and external. like a seizure wracking one's entire body, entirely out of control and entirely too much. it's hard to describe what life before birth is, but for juno it's something like this. like desperately trying to get free, like pushing with one's entire strength and still getting nowhere. it's like helplessness.

and yet, all is not lost. one wiry limb pressed in exactly the right spot and suddenly: existence. the shattering sound is deafening, but it's the best sound juno has ever heard. it's the only sound juno has ever heard. from the moment they stepped into this world juno was a fighter, refusing to lie around and wait for life to come to them.

before they knew it, their crystalline prison was left in shambles at their feet. chunks of green, glasslike stone had been crunched to bits. they blink their eyes hesitantly, never fully opening them, lest they be blinded by the overwhelming light of the world around them. a suffocating feeling took over them, as they were not fully aware of how to control their new body. they inhaled deeply, wheezing just a little bit at the cold feeling of the air in their nostrils.

trying to walk, juno was helpless but to stumble on their too-long legs. they fumbled around on their lanky limbs, trying to make some sound, any sound, to signify to others that "i'm here."

She didn't have to be here. She could have been far away, way, way far away. As in the farthest one could even get from this room. Yet for some reason, here she was again, pulled back to Polaris, the place of her own hatching, the place of her home. And the place of most danger for her.

But she turned from the magic crystal, knowing well what effect it had on her by now. Aure had helped her figure that out. She was more confident now, strolling through the cave, far enough away from the Spire that she did not have to think about it. She trotted along, happy as could be, tail waving merrily behind her when she heard the noise. A cracking noise that sounded so familiar. And some kind of other noise. Her whiskers twitched as she gave the air a gentle sniff. There was someone nearby!

With a small bounce, she set off, changing her course so that it took her to where the new creature was trying to walk. Of course, she missed it, just seeing them fumble around on the ground. It looked like they were playing some kind of game or just goofing around and having fun! She giggled and trotted forward, raising a paw to gently poke at the new-hatched. Despite being almost full grown, she was only a little bit bigger then a brand new pup. "You're all funny! Long legs! What are you doing?" She grinned. "I'm Wilder!"

@juno

juno looked proudly at the shards of their chrysalis that lay before them. a sense of self-satisfaction engulfing them. i did that. that was me.

her ears flicked around warily, listening to the sounds of something. something approaching, the trotting of paws on the ground amplified by the walls of the cave. she quirked her head at the sight of a creature not much larger than her, tension easing out of her slowly at the sound of her voice. she didn't sound like a threat, as far as juno could tell.

at the mention of juno's legs, they bristled, suddenly feeling dramatically overprotective of their own body. something wrong with my legs? they wondered. they planted their feet firmly into the ground, standing proudly, defiantly, trying to show how perfectly fine their legs really were.

"wilder?" juno asked into the air, though not really a question; it was more of a cautious echo. a name, they hadn't given it much thought. they just said the first thing to come to mind: "juno." they gestured to themselves, "juno, juno, juno." they whispered, trying the name out, before nodding, sure.

"what're you doing?" juno countered, when they realized that they really had no idea what was going on. their speech was slurred, but hopefully comprehensible.

@wilder

Wilder was a little taken aback by Juno's question, since she didn't really think that what she was doing was really something...that could be questioned. She tilted her head but then she chuckled. She raised a paw and flicked it. A shard of the chrysalis rose into the air and shot towards her where she observed it floating in front of her. Another grin split her face. "Oh, you hatched! You broke from the crystal!" She cut off the magic and let the shard fall to the ground. "I was walking when I heard you make a noise. So I wanted to come say hi!"

She stood tall and fluffed her chest, as if coming to say hi was something to be very proud of. Well, of course it was! She was sure that most people would just walk by and she'd been really nice to stop and be with Juno on their hatching. "I'm Wilder!" she repeated. "We're gonna be such good friends!"

@juno

juno nodded proudly when wilder mentioned their hatching. they wondered if wilder was proud, if wilder had any stake in juno's life, or if she was just passing through when she happened to notice.

they watched in confusion as wilder seemed to manipulate the shards of their broken chrysalis to her will. could juno do that, too? "h-how...?" they muttered softly, focusing entirely on the floating crystal. they tried outstretching their own paw, hoping to control a shard as well, but they only stumbled over with a loss of balance instead.

"friends." juno smiled and nodded, not entirely sure what the word 'friends' meant, but it sure sounded nice when wilder said it. although, they were still caught up on wilder's apparent magic. "do i have magic, too?" they asked, still trying to will a shard into the sky with a flick of her paw.

@wilder

She didn't quite notice the pup's amazement at her performance of magic. It was second nature to her now. Where it once had brought on severe attacks by her strange hallucinations, it was now easier for her to cast spells without fearing to fall into that dark pit all the time. But she did see them try and grab a crystal with magic on their own. She giggled as they tripped.

"I don't know! I don't know if everyone has magic. Some people have different kinds of magic! I once met an alligator that could breathe fire from his jaws and my first friends could make the shadows dance! My best friend can make mushrooms appear wherever he wants!" But Juno really seemed like they wanted to make the shards go flying so she decided to indulge them. She'd never, after all, had the opportunity to teach her magic to others! "I can try and show you what to do but something else might happen."

She got down and reached forward with a paw, pointing at one of the crystal shards. For a second she tried to think about how it was she even used magic. She felt like it was a dangerous cliff. If she strayed too far she would fall. So she carefully planned out her thoughts. "You gotta focus on your gem. I think it's there," she pointed with her other paw at the shard of crystal on the pup's leg. "And then...I don't know, you make magic happen!" She was too caught in her own lesson that she couldn't focus herself so when she tried to make the shard move it barely wobbled. "Try making the shard move a bit. But something else might happen!"

@juno

juno listened carefully, nodding their head vigorously. breathing fire sure did sound cool, but wouldn't that hurt? whatever, all they could really think about right now was how much they wanted magic of their own. whether it be making crystalline shards fly or something entirely different.

they lowered their head to watch carefully where wilder was pointing, not feeling quite comfortable enough to bend their knees, lest they fall over and embarrass themselves yet again. while they weren't sure what 'focusing on their gem' really consisted of, but from what juno could gather, this magic business was pretty intuitive. if it felt right, it probably was right.

they flexed the muscles beneath their jade bangle gemstone, just noticing how it seemed to move with their body. it was a part of them, an extension of their limb. they found it odd, to mix a living being with an inanimate stone, but perhaps that's what made it so magical? they closed their eyes, not looking at the shards of chrysalis any longer, focused entirely on the clenching and unclenching of their left arm.

the shards did move beneath their paws, but not because she had caused them to fly. instead, a ring of fungus began to emerge from the earth around them. tiny, glowing mushrooms lit up the shards from underneath, almost creating a disco ball effect, projecting little rays of dull light onto their face.

@wilder

Wilder watched the dog be kind of funny. Why wasn't she looking at the crystal shards? Why was she moving her leg around? It was pretty strange! Wilder giggled for a moment but then stopped when she realized that Juno was trying to concentrate. She waited...and then let out a meow of surprise when mushrooms suddenly appeared around them. Her face broke into another wide smile. "Oh! Look at that! Mushrooms! Just like my friend!"

She poked at it merrily as she began to purr. It was glowing and so colorful and pretty! She liked these mushrooms. Aure had made some like them too. She bounced around them, laughing childishly, poking at them and generally being a very happy and very silly cat. A moment later, her fur began to sparkle around her gem and then a faint pink glow began to spread across her body. "They're so good! I'm proud!"

@juno