No sooner than the trollish Gembound had gotten to her planned place for ingredient-hunting did she find the sparkling glimmer of purple among dull blue-grey pebbles. Elspet picked up the pace, despite the black gemstone cutting into her palms and causing a great deal of discomfort. Sure enough, it was a gorilla-fist-sized hunk of amethyst, beautiful and unadulterated. Fortunately, no magicka seemed to flow through it at the touch, so that just meant that this was somehow a gemstone of totally natural generation. Hell yeah.

She pawed at the amethyst for a moment, before beginning to dig the fingers of her free (right) hand beneath its base. With a great heave, Elspet easily tore it from its confines. Then, casually as any Gembound can, she placed it atop her head. Rather conveniently, it nestled perfectly between the prongs of her smaller pair of horns. Just so long as she wasn't throwing her head around willy-nilly, she had a beautiful crown of amethyst right now and probably looked downright foolish.

Oh well.

Back to gemstone huntin', she supposed.

Further along she picked, yellow eyes rather carelessly searching over the pebbles for any gemstones that caught her eye. Once or twice, her new crown plonked off her head, but it was quickly replaced. Elspet would not have it that her crown be removed from her head. That was just not how crowns work. What good was a crown if it wasn't on some Gembound's head? Useless, that's how good it was. Ugh, right?

Anyways, not a pretty gem in sight. Really, truly, disappointing. If only she had better luck.

Walk, walk, walk; stumble, stumble, stumble.

Whoever designed these damn pebbles deserved a reduction in their pay grade or straight-up being fired. The amount of times Elspet had stomped down on a unsuspectingly sharp stone or nearly rolled her ankles and wrists? Too many to count on one hand or foot, if she could even count. Dumb butch lesbian energy, truly. Dumb butch seems like too many adjectives for the same thing, though. The gorilla snorted, amused by the idea of actually counting and not using synonyms to describe herself.

It was impressive, right?

Okay, now this was just getting annoying.

Was it just Elspet, or did Fornax just not have any stupid shiny rocks anywhere? It was almost as if it wasn't an epicenter of magic or convenience of any sort. In all honesty, the gorilla really wished she had begun her search elsewhere, but she sure as hell wasn't going to make that precarious trip through the cold-ass Tunnel M again. No, sirree. Her hair was not thick enough for that, and setting herself on fire again didn't seem like such a good idea. Warming up her hands was great and all, but that did nothing for the rest of her actual body.

Ugh.

Just when the gorilla was about to lose all semblance of hope and just turn back to meet up with Usingizi --- there. A marvelous yellow citrine, glimmering in the orb- and ceiling-lights of Fornax. It was slightly opaque, but just dazzling. Elspet didn't think it was anywhere near as bright as her own horns, but it was almost as impressive and electrifying to look at.

So, like any peak lesbian with a brain would, she took it up in her hand and promptly plonked it into her mouth. It sat perfectly behind her eye teeth, contained neatly with minimal drooling. Sure, she looked like an idiot with an amethyst crystal cluster crown, a hunk of black stone in her hand, and a citrine opening her jaw as widely as possible, but she was a smart and efficient idiot.

The most dangerous of them all.

Anyways, she scampered back toward the designated meeting place with Usingizi.

;exit elspet