The walk from Monoceros to Orion was long, but perhaps not as long as other paths. Wilder constantly checked to make sure that Legion was still behind her, worried that they would grow tired after just hatching. She very much hoped that Aure had remembered his dream and would come to meet them. She didn't want to push the new gembound (or, uh, gembounds? Were they all bound with gems?) too far on its first few days.

Eventually they were in the cave of Orion with the stars glittering above their heads. She pointed with her tail towards the ceiling. "Look, isn't it pretty? This is Orion. Lots of pretty crystals!" She sometimes wondered why Aure didn't have the Bonebound living in Orion. It was very pretty and big. The Seven were here, yes, but there was plenty of room for both of them! Wilder smiled, wondering what it would be like to live here instead of the dusty, musty Canis or the magic heavy Polaris.

Eventually, about halfway between the tunnels that led to Monocers and Canis, she stopped and turned around. "Well, we can stop here if you're tired! My friend should meet us soon. He's in another cave but I told him to meet us halfway. And we're halfway!" She plopped her hindquarters on the ground and purred contently. She'd see Aure soon and introduce him to her new friend, who was super weird and super cool!

@Legion @Aure

The swarm--still in Wilder's form--buzzed thoughtfully as it followed her. It was shifting, blurring constantly, like a cloud of black dust in the shape of a cat. The glowing pink eyes (and the myriad eyes within the form itself) gazed about in awe.

The crystals were beautiful--glinting violet and white--and Legion found them fascinating. For a moment, it concentrated on its coloring, its shading, trying to imitate it: to stud evenly-spaced mites throughout its swarm with bright pale coloring, so that it, too (even in Wilder shape) appeared to glint with stars. Though it managed, it found this harder than expected, and realized almost at once that Wilder was right--it was tired. A quick survey of the swarm found that yes, most were weary from the travel. It would not be far for an actual cat to walk, perhaps, at least by comparison--but for a tiny near-microscopic mite, it was a hell of a journey.

"We are tired," it reported, though agreeably, a hum in its voice. "But we find this--beautiful. Thank you for bringing us. Where is--friend?" It still assumed that Aure must be invisible, what with Wilder's having spoken to him way back in Monoceros... though no one had been there at bar Wilder and Legion itself.

Aure was beginning to regret that Wilder had somehow learned some mind-linking magic that operated only in dream settings. Many a peaceful, good sleep had been disturbed by jarring transitions into the sight of the little black cat. She was nice and all, but man, the wyvern wanted to just sleep. He wasn't pointedly annoyed though, as he approached Orion.

Bright eyes searched the blue cityscape, wings tilting just enough to allow him to swerve in a wide circle toward the tunnel leading to Monoceros. This cave was a central hub of sorts, but only one path led to the windy room.

As such, it was pretty easy to spot Wilder and her apparent new friend; that, and the former talked rather loudly and ecstatically. She sat firmly in place, alongside a rather similarly-shaped creature that seemed to glitter like the stars in Orion. Now that was interesting. Aure chirped, then began to descend. In one smooth motion, he dove and alighted. Flapping his wings a few times for balance and trotting forward to dispel some acquired momentum, the wyvern shook himself.

Smoothing down his feathers and tucking his wings at his side, he glanced at either Gembound present and blinked. "Hey, Wilder! Who's this?" Rather helpfully, he observed, "they look quite a bit like you."

@Wilder

Wilder purred happily at Legion's observation. "It is beautiful! Orion is near the center so I'm sure you'll be here a lot! I certainly am!" Because, of course, everyone's experience of travel in the caves was similar to hers. To be fair, though, Orion was a central hub of travel. To get to some of the caves, one could pass only through Orion, after all.

"Aure should be coming. He said he'd meet us! He told me in a dream!" She didn't really elaborate, not realizing that Legion had absolutely no clue about how her magic worked. But soon she heard the sound of wings and she looked up, ears perking with joy at the sight of Aure coming down from the sky.

"Hi, Aure!" she meowed happily. "This is Legion! They wanted to meet someone and I thought you'd be interested!" She looked at Legion again and realized that their fur...or, uh, some of the mites, were starting to glow like the stars. "You should have seen them before! I thought I was looking in a puddle of water!" She looked back at Aure and bounced with enthusiasm. "Legion is made of bugs! It's very cool and kind of scary but super cool!"

@Legion

At Aure's approach--and greeting--the swarm found itself fascinated. This one--Aure?--looks nothing like Wilder! The buzzing myriad began to shift rapidly, its shape blurring and changing until a moment later a somewhat-hazy version of Aure sat blinking at him blankly. Its colors were muted--ashen and mud-brown, in places--but mostly it seemed to have gotten the hybrid's form correct. The stars that had glinted across its surface, however, had vanished.

It continued to listen politely. At Wilder's assertation that the swarm was "kind of scary" it paused, blinking at her, and the sensation of hurt feelings rippled through the swarm--showing as a sort of shudder throughout the mirror-Aure's form. At least it was "super cool"--that was good, right?

It looked back to Aure, and very softly protested--"We are not scary. We will not harm! We... greet you. Hello." Legion briefly consulted itself, the queen and swarm chattering via mind--had they used their words right? They thought so.

They weren't quite sure what "bugs" were, though--maybe that was the name of the individual swarm components? Ask! came the quick consensus, and so it did. The voice--always humming with that undercurrent, made up of the trilling of thousands of mites--spoke up: "What are bugs?"

@Wilder

No sooner than Legion had been introduced to him did it quite literally change shape. It shifted and churned for a moment, into a cloud of... something (magic?!) and took his own form! Aure's beak literally dropped in awe, feathers puffing up involuntarily. Rude as it was, he scampered forth to inspect the odd creature more closely. His eyes, bright and keen, couldn't even discern how this was possible. All he had to go off of was Wilder's explanation, which made a shocking lot of sense. It explained the very slight shift in the fake-Aure's skin and feathers, with every motion.

It was, indeed, very cool.

Hyena-like ears pricked up as the odd creature --- or, he supposed, swarm of creatures --- began to speak, greeting in a rather disjointed way and humming persistently. Aure shook his head, clicking his beak, "nah, that's awesome! Is it magic that lets you do whatever that is? Shapeshifting?" There was, of course, the hidden tone of "can I do that too?" "Hello, Legion."

There was bad news for the wyvern.

As for what bugs were, Aure immediately conjured up an image of one in his mind and set to describing it: "well, bugs are tiny little creatures with a lot of little legs and thin, shiny wings? Some don't have wings, though. They just walk."

@Wilder

Wilder noticed the small shiver that went through Legion's form as well as the hurt tone as they protested. Her ears drooped when she realized that, perhaps, she had not really been the most tactful. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I guess...I guess I'm just not used to seeing a creature made of bugs! It's different!" She flicked her tail, hoping that her explanation would go over okay with Legion.

Otherwise, she sat there, happily, watching the two interact, purring contently at this meeting of friends.

@Legion

The swarm shifted, a little, as Legion replied--first to Aure, and then to Wilder, though with the exact same words.

"Thank you. Thank you." It seemed one was a thanks for the explanation, and the other--Wilder's words? It wasn't quite clear.

Legion, however, seemed somewhat lost in its own thoughts, for a moment. "We... do not think it's magic," it answered Aure uncertainly.

The swarm then shifted again, leaving Aure's shape behind and breaking apart in a dusty cloud, only to reform again--as a giant replica, as best it could create, of its queen. The single mite, of course, was near-microscopic: but this shapeshifted copy was quite large, the size of a lion cub... if thinly-spread and thus, a little translucent. But all the legs were there, and the wings, and the big green-blue gem at its back. The many eyes seemed to look up at the other two as Legion spoke again. "This is our Queen! Or --what she looks like. Is this--a bug?" it asked the others, hopefully.

@Wilder @Aure

From a friend to a friend, Aure joked gently, "I guess I'm not used to seeing a creature made of excitement." Wilder quite literally just seemed to be on the verge of exploding at all times, perhaps into some confetti or something. Hopefully the enthusiasm-blowup wouldn't be too grisly a sight.

Anyways --- off the topic of excitement --- the wyvern's ears drooped only slightly. No shapeshifting for him. His ears flickered forth again, though, as the swarm dissolved. It lost its Aure-like form, instead taking the cub-sized shape of a mite. That was "definitely a bug!" What a cool concept, honestly. "Does the Queen lead all of you? Do you all have gems?"

Was this an ancient familiar with Aether? They were both bug-like...

@Wilder

Wilder giggled at the joke Aure threw her way and continued to purr contently. Was she made of excitement? Was that possible? It did seem that she constantly ran on her own happiness and enthusiasm.

She marveled at the shape that Legion created for Aure, curiously poking at it with her paw again, seemingly completely forgetting that nothing would happen and her paw would go right through. "Pretty! <3 Pretty gemstone, pretty queen! Bugs are very cool!" It wasn't a thought she'd had before today but Legion was a special case and was, in fact, quite cool.

@Legion