Who knows how long the Collector stood there? He came when she seemed asleep--when she hadn't moved, when her gaze was not facing him. And he came unseen.

One moment there was empty jungle, the forest shivering with cold autumn wind.

The next, in a patch of bare, orb-lit dirt that had held nothing, there was... something.

Drawn to his full height of eight feet tall, his dark cloak wrapped closely around him; with horns twisting back and crimson pinprick eyes regarding the cage, unblinking, the Collector spoke. His voice was a smooth baritone purr, cultured and soothing.

""Blackberry, is it? Wake up, little bird; I have a proposition for you."

Perhaps Rift, or another of the Kingdom of Eridanus, were close enough to hear. The Collector didn't mind. He waited, staring down patiently, pleased with all that he had planned.

@Blackberry

Ever since Azure had come and gone a couple of cycles ago, Blackberry had wasted away. Rift's reluctance to start the trial with her in such a fragile mental state had only caused her will to live to deteriorate further the longer she was trapped inside. He let her out to walk around a heavily enclosed space now that it seemed that her stay would be longer, and he'd expanded the cage enough that she could move a little bit instead of be closed in at all times. Still, it was solitary confinement for the goose and she despised it.

The voice shocked her out of her current stupor, however - she hadn't heard anyone approaching. She flinched, her head pulling out from under her wing to regard the cloaked creature before her. She'd never seen him before in her life, but the appearance - the horns, the cloak, the beady red eyes, she'd heard of him before. The Collector.

What in the caves could he want with someone like her?

Clarity came to her vision momentarily - it was a visitor, after all, that wouldn't require as much mental anguish as the ones before. At least, that's what she hoped. The was cracking and fraying at the edges and every time another one of her children came close to speak with her, more of the threads unraveled and broke. This, thankfully, was not one of her family.

"Me?" she asked, voice cracking. "What could you want with me?"

There was a glint within the shadowed hood, as if of teeth, as if of grinning.

"I've heard so much about you-... Ahh, but this isn't about me, is it? It is about you."

The cloak shifted, the Collector taking a step closer; clawed, grey-furred hands slipped from the robe and gripped the branch-like bars. He leaned in, staring down at Blackberry intently. "I have a little task that most would find too... dangerous. But for someone in your position--and someone as tough as you have proven... Well. How long have you been trapped in there-...?" For a moment, the words hung, like dew from a leaf: and then they fell, dripping, the diamond-glint of great rewards rife in them. "I would say you have nothing to lose--and a great deal to gain."

He paused, again; each word was laced with temptation, slick with his hidden leering and purring with dark promise. "But tell me, Blackberry-... What is it that you want? I always pay fair prices, after all."

@Blackberry

Blackberry ignored the eloquent words and his gentleman farce. She didn't care. Quit beating around the bush and get to the point. Was he trying to flatter her? Really? If he knew about her, then he'd know that nothing like flattery would ever work on her now. Never again. But the last sentence...that one got her. She opened her beak to respond but then stopped because she had no idea how long she'd been in here. Days? Weeks? Cycles?! She didn't know and she found herself listening a little closer to the Collector's words.

A task? That wasn't really something she'd expected, to be honest. After all, she was in a cage awaiting trial (a trial that seemed like it would never come). She was beaten and broken - scarred, tailless, a goose with no wings and no flippers to swim with. She was useless. And this cloaked weirdo wanted to give her a job? It was absolutely ridiculous.

But still, it was something. A chance to get out of here, out of this fucking cage and away from all the misery she'd endured. If she was going to be alive, then she wanted to be doing something with it, not wasting away. Her throat went dry when the question was presented to her. The answer fell from her mouth immediately. "Blueberry. I want him." She knew it wasn't possible, she knew the Collector probably had no idea who he even was, but it was the only thing she wanted, the only thing she'd ever wanted.

Rift was standing just outside of Blackberry's confinement, nodding off a little. He was tired. And confused. He kept putting off and putting off Blackberry's trial, out of nerves, out of insecurity. Every day that passed he was less and less sure of himself and the decision to hold this trial, to even be keeping her here. His conversation (if that could even be called a conversation) with Pride had shaken him more then he realized and he was questioning now...Do we even have any authority? It certainly didn't feel like it.

Lost in thought, he almost missed the voices from within the tree. But when he came to and realized that Blackberry was speaking to someone, he immediately whipped around. That wasn't possible. He hadn't seen anyone come by. But, sure enough, a cloaked figure was crouched before the cave.

Rift's eyes widened with shock and he stepped forward, coming to a halt behind the Collector. "Excuse me," he growled. "Who are you and how did you get in here?"

Blackberry made her request; and Rift, his surprisingly-polite demand.

The glint of a shark-toothed grin widened beneath the Collector's hood. He answered Rift; but his eyes remained on Blackberry, his hand dipping back into his black cloak.

"I am the Collector," he told Rift smoothly; "and this one here is one I have come to collect. It's been a little... hassle for you, hasn't it? All this responsibility, and no one to share it with, no one to join in on your idea of justice. But I have something to offer you, too--a trial of another making," he went on. The hand began to slip back out of his robe, something in his fist, something large, his clawed fingers tight around it. "There is something that I need from Hydra. Something that would be dangerous in the wrong hands; something that cannot be left to chance. But it is hidden from me," he added. "Let her obtain it, for others' safety; let her be exiled there until it is returned to me. Hydra is a fitting punishment for what I hear that she has done... and I always reward such tasks fairly," he added.

The fingers unfurled. There, lying in his palm, was the soft blue glow--pale and glittering--of an apatite gemstone. "A new start; what do you say? Should you perish there, I will ensure that your stone, and his, are given to someone of your choice... And should you succeed in recovering what I seek, I will grant that new start still," he added. His crimson pinprick eyes flicked toward Rift.

"A washing away of the blood on her claws... to be reborn. She will remember little of all that she is done, except to abhor the idea of violence. Of course, the tragedy is that she will half-forget the moose-... but that is a small price to pay for bringing life back to his stone--wouldn't you say?" The gemstone was swept back into the robes, hidden away as if it had never been there, and the Collector stared at the Gembound. "To begin again... Together with family." The word held a sly hiss to it, the crooning of a snake's tongue.

"So: do we have a deal?"

Blackberry's Gamble: The Collector is offering to release Blackberry into Hydra. The cost: she must attempt to retrieve an object of his description. The reward: if she fails, her stone, and Blueberry's, will be given to a character of Blackberry's choosing. If she succeeds, however, she will be granted Blueberry's stone, and will be forced into her chrysalis to mutate.

This mutation would see Blackberry hatch as a white goose with only very few, fractured memories of her previous life, and an impulse--almost a compulsion--toward benevolence and kindness rather than hysteria or violence. Tragically, her memories of Blueberry would be only the echo of a memory, glimpsed in bits and pieces, and in dreams.

@Blackberry

The Collector? Rift has heard of him before - the strange cloaked creature that offered rewards for jobs, although what kinds of jobs they were had never been clear...and he had a feeling that they were potentially the unsavory kind. His eyes narrowed with suspicion and he stepped forward before Blackberry could speak. "Now hold on. I can't just go about handing her over to a stranger. I don't know much about Hydra, nor about how harsh a punishment it will be, but I simply can't just...let her go! And do you really think that such a dangerous item would be even remotely safe in her possession, even for a short amount of time?"

His voice grew strained and he looked between the Collector and Blackberry. He very much wanted to allow this to happen. If he just turned away now, pretended like he'd never seen this happen, then his biggest problem and stress would be gone, just like that. Blackberry would be no more, no matter what happened to her in Hydra. But he couldn't. It wasn't right to just...let her go. He'd taken responsibility for her and her punishment - he shouldn't let it be turned over to a stranger.

Hydra...she'd only heard the name in passing. A whisper of some new cave opening in Canis but she'd never truly known about it. But that didn't matter. How bad could it be? It was just another cave, perhaps harsher then the others, but a new cave nonetheless. As long as it's a punishment I deserve, the thought grimly but all thought was wiped from her mind when he pulled out the gemstone.

She sucked in a breath and threw herself against the bars to get a closer look. It had been a long time and she, of course, had never seen the full thing before but the color was right. The shape looked right. She wasn't sure if it really was his but it sure looked like it was. She had no idea how he'd gotten this, but she didn't care because here it was. The thing she'd been hoping to find for cycles upon cycles, that Wilder couldn't find, that the Seven didn't know about. Tears sprang to her eyes and she realized that it wasn't just a wild request. It was real and it was possible.

And even if she were to die...he might live again.

She was nodding her head and speaking without even realizing. "Yes," she sobbed. "I'll do it. I'll do it. I d-don't deserve this but I'll d-do my best." She could hear Rift speaking and looked up at him. "N-no, I...please, Rift. I know you're not going to do the Trial. I don't know why but if you haven't done it yet, I doubt you ever will. Let me do this. Let me be punished."

"Punished!" The word hung in the air for a moment, full of amusement, ringing there in the quiet.

"...No, my dear goose. This is not a punishment; this is justice, with all its varied rewards."

The Collector turned to Rift, and spoke as if he'd read his mind. "Ahh, Rift; forger of a Kingdom. You have taken on so many responsibilities," he murmured, as if sympathetic, those tiny red eyes flicking over the cat's mutated form. "Suffered so much; and yet dutifully, humbly, have you remained fair and just." The black-cloaked form swept into a low bow, as if to say the Collector respected Rift, as if to offer his acknowledgement. "-But it is over, now. You are welcome to come with us, perhaps-? To wait at the gateway to Hydra--the doorway to the hell that lies beyond. To see for yourself that the trial will be fair."

The Collector reached one hand out. By whatever magic he held--something strange, foreign; something unnatural--a branch that formed a prison bar twisted away at his touch, opening a gap in the cage. It wasn't clear whether he controlled the plant, or whether it pulled away, as if cringing, from the Collector's magic.

And then, as if it were already decided, as if it was all within his control, the Collector--a door to the cage now opened--stood back. He smiled at the pair. "Shall we?" he asked, and waited.

@Rift

He glanced down at Blackberry and a painful looked passed across his face. He still hated her, he wanted to see her die, wanted to see proper justice be served, but he'd gained some measure of pity for her in the cycles that he'd kept her here. Pity for a murderer. And now the Collector's words were washing out his mind and twisting him, making him want to more and more to let this all happen. The flattery did nothing, however, to improve his mood - all it did was make him feel worse about this all.

He didn't deserve this. He wasn't a good leader.

But it was the Collector's hand, sweeping out to open the cage, and the branches folding to his will, opening up the cage for Blackberry to step free, that he realized how out of his league this creature was. He tensed for a moment, instinctively wanted to fight back against this, to put the cage back how it belonged, but defeat spread through his body and he relinquished this silly delusion of control. "Alright," he responded in monotone. "I'll come with you to see her off, just to make sure that you are being honest."