She was, for the first time in her tiny little life, wandering.

Exploring.

Orion was new to her--heck, so had Tunnel J been. Her father had warned her to be careful, and despite his general indifference there'd been worry in his eyes as he'd sent her on her way. She'd come back--she'd reassured him of that--but that spark of excitement in her wanted to see the world. To go on an adventure.

For now, the towering ruins of Orion were fascinating already: only the first cave she'd seen, and their stony starlight and crumbled vestiges of ages past had her imagination running wild. What monsters or beautiful people, what small and sparkling creatures or rainbow-colored serpents, had lived in these blackened ruins? Had someone crawled up to the ceiling to paint the stars onto the rock-sky? And what was this big, open place--the forum, the arena; was it a bowl for a giant thing to eat out of?

Bug wanted to find new friends, too, but so far she hadn't met a single being. It was disappointing, but the peacefulness of the place was its own sort of magic: a long-abandoned city sitting in glittering ruins.

"Woooow," she said, softly, and listened to her voice where it echoed in the dust.

She blinked, and then reached out her magic. A second voice whispered, farther in the dark, projected by her gemstone: 'Wooooow.' And the double whispers rippled through the alleyways.

The kitten-dragon laughed with delight, a quiet tinkling that set its own echo loose among the rocks, and she flapped upward on little bat wings to land atop one of the ceilings. And there she perched, for now, staring out with delighted awe, her round and fiery eyes drinking it all in.

It was about time for Attikias to bring Dread his part of the trade. In the crook of his arm he carried a near facsimile of the dragon, right down to scales being meticulously chipped away and a general roughness over the whole piece. Bottles of dye bounced in his pack, as well, and he certainly had ideas for it to be fireproof that he just wanted to test out with Dread.

Sure, he got some results earlier, but it was best to get opinions from the source, too.

It'd been a while since he'd been back this way. The lights at the ceiling always caught his eye as he wandered through, deer-skin cape billowing out behind him. His own "ah" of wonder had escaped him.

Until he tripped. Falling down on his body, he instinctively flexed out his front left arm to brace himself, holding the wood closer in his right. A clipped shout tumbled out of him, and he winced as he sat back on his knees. Already, burgundy red had begun to form along the arm affected. He broke through the skin- that was gonna be a scrape. Man. At least the statue was okay. Shaking himself out, he rocked back to his feet, rubbing at his arm to try and wipe away spots threatening to bead down.

He was gonna have to deal with this, wasn't he? Sighing, he reached into his pack for a thick strip of spare theater, wrapping it around his arm to keep the blood he needed inside for now.

Everything was gonna be fine. He bent over to pick up the statuette (thankfully undamaged) and made to return on his journey.

@Bug

The fall, the cry, she heard, where the faint 'ah' had been utterly missed.

Flap, flap, went the little black leather wings; and the kitten was soon landing, all four paws placed down neatly, before Attikias.

"Are you okay?" she chirped up at him, eyes wide. He'd wrapped some sort of brown stuff around him--in fact, he was wrapped in all sorts of stuff already! And he was purple! And tall!

Ember eyes drank him in, the strangeness of him, his exotic nature.

Cool! she thought, and her draconic tail lashed once behind her. But the scent of blood caught her nose, and she blinked.

"Are you bleeding? Are you gonna be okay? I'm Bug," she added. "Can I ask you things? What's that all over you? What is that you have?" She then paused, blinking, remembering what her father had told her about "MAKING MY MIND TOO BUSY WITH TOO MANY WORDS!" and tried to give Attikias time to speak.

@Attikias

Attikias's head pulled back, looked around, and then finally down to see who was talking. An immediate sense of joy filled his senses at how small she was.

"Hey! I'm fine," he practically purred out, tail swaying happily as he knelt. The statue was plonked down to his side, and he draped his arms on his knees.

Lots of questions. He blinked, then laughed, shaking his head. "I'm fine," he began. "This'll make sure I'll be fine." He tugged at the leather, making sure it was tight.

"You sure can ask things! These are my clothes," he assumed that's what she meant, pulling at the cloak so she could see. "I don't have fur like you, so I gotta keep warm. Also, this is a lil' figure of a dragon over in the windy cave- his name's Dread. A very good merchant!" He let out that last one with another laugh, before releasing his cloak. "I'm Attikias, by the way. Or Attik!"

His turn for questions? "What about you? I've got one question, and that's how are you so SMALL?" He grinned good-naturedly, moving to pat her on the head before pausing. "And- can I pet you?"

Okay, two questions, but important ones.

@Bug

She stood peacefully before him, eyes wide as she listened, obliviously trusting.

"Clothes?! They look really neat! I want clothes," she decided, envious and enthusiastic both. Before she could get too deeply into discussion about furs and leather, though, he was speaking of Dread--her dad! "THAT'S MY DAD!" she squeaked happily, her eyes round as saucers now. Her excitement was clear, and she was bounding for the statuette, sniffing it, her draconic tail lashing behind her. "IT LOOKS JUST LIKE HIM! He's really big and nice and--what's a merchant?! Is that good?" she asked, blinking wide eyes up at Attikias.

And then, he was petting her. She froze, for a moment, then decided that she liked it well enough, and began to purr. But she still moved, still turned this way and that to see the statue, to see Attikias's clothes. "Sure? Nobody ever did that before. It feels okay! I don't know why I'm small. Dad's REALLY big!" she added. "When did you meet him? I've never seen you before! Are you friends?"

@Attikias

She was certainly cute. "Sure, I can get you some," he chuckled out. His head cocked slightly when she yelled about Dread- her dad- and he looked at the statuette she was inspecting. "I hope it does! I tried to get it just right," he hummed, curling a finger around one of the horns.

"He is nice! And big- a lot different than you. But a lot similar." He put a finger to his chin. "He's started trading stuff, and I'm gonna give this to him for some of the stuff he has."

Though, now, given permission, he curled his hand between her little horns and rubbed between them and her ears. "I'm glad! I've been told it feels nice." By Azizos, primarily, and it did feel nice for him to do, too. She was just so fluffy!

He paused in his ministrations, pulling his hand back. "Um- I guess a couple of cycles ago? I wanna be his friend, yeah." A brief flicker of concern came over him, though, as he straightened up and looked for any looming dragons. "Is he around here?"

@Bug

A more cautious child might not have immediately admitted that her large, draconic father wasn't close by to watch over her just in case. Bug didn't know enough (having been protected all her young life by that large, draconic father) to be wary.

"No! He said he doesn't like leaving the cave too much 'cause his wings are way too big and he has to walk so he stays in Moco-... Monoceros a lot." She squinted into the middle distance. Monoceros--yeah, that's right, right?!
Flameglow eyes shifted back to the dark elf. "I can go back with you, if you want? We can go back together? We can be friends, too," she decided. "I only met you and Kalama! She's an explorer and a conqueror and a guardian of the... the bone-sniffers." A pause. "I don't know why they sniff bones. I haven't met them."

Oversized little black bat-wings flapped, and the kitten rose into the air, hovering bright-eyed before Attikias. She studied the statuette again, briefly, and then the elf; even as she flew, she purred. "How do you make clothes? And--how'd you make a little Dad?" she asked, curiously.

@Attikias

Well, that made sense. He was huge, at least to an elf, and Attikias couldn't imagine navigating through that tunnel with those wings. She seemed to hesitate on the name of the cave, and he nodded at the second pronunciation. That sounded right.

Better not let her know that he wasn't sure, himself. "Sure!" He flashed a grin with eyes closed. "I'd like to be friends, little Bug." A good decision on both parties! He always enjoyed new friends. More huffs of laughter came through his nose as she rambled on about this Kalama and bone sniffers. "I've never heard of those guys." Did she mean the... The Bonebound? He had to grasp for the name himself for a moment.

And up she rose. "Ah- do you wanna ride on my shoulder?" He patted at the side not laden with a gem as he stood, taking the statuette back in hand. "Clothes are.. It sounds grim, but it's skin from something you've eaten, tied together to make somethin' to cover you and keep you warm." He hesitated for a moment. "You eat meat, right?"

No matter. As for Little Dread, he hupped the figure up higher. "It's not really him, it's like, um, how do I put this." His free hand grabbed at the air as he tried to put the idea in words. "Y'know how you make footprints? Or how you can make dents in things? It's like that, carving out wood but denting it in the right way to make it look like something it's not." He'd rummage in his bag if it weren't for the forearm-tall figure in the way. "I don't have claws like a lot of people, so I use metal from the tunnel to Monoceros."

He made to walk that way, watching Bug to see if she'd follow (or ride).

@Bug

Bug paused, eyeing Attikias' shoulder. Part of her was eager to hop right on, to inspect the--skins?? Ewww, further. But she didn't know him that well, yet, and something about just buddying up with something larger than her (and by a pretty big margin) made her nervous.

"Um, it's okay. I can fly! -They're skins?" she asked, hovering awkwardly a little bit closer. They were, too. Gross... Granted, Dad kept hides and stuff around, and tried to trade them off, but still. It was still gross.

"That does sound, uh--grim. I do eat meat though!" she hastened to reassure Attikias, beaming at him before hovering a little farther away. She looked off toward Monoceros, and as he started off, she went alongside him like some strange, shoulder-height familiar.

"I KNOW it's not REALLY him!" she said, with all the protesting enthusiasm of a small child, and then laughed--a loud, shrill peal of giggles. "I meant--yeah! Dented wood..? That sounds really weird," she said, scrunching up her nose in a squint as she tried--and failed--to picture it. With pieces of metal, too..?

"Where did you learn all this stuff?" the flying kitten asked. She turned, peering at Attikias with bright curiosity. "Did someone teach you--um--wood-denting? Or did you figure it out yourself?" And then, a pause as she digested (again) the whole metal-rather-than-claws thing; "Would my claws help? I could help if you want!"

@Attikias

He gave a shrug as the denial of a free ride, not thinking anything about the rejection. Very well, then! His free hand rolled at the hem of the leather around his collar, looking down at it. ”Yeah- well, I mean, it’d just go to waste since I can’t eat the fur or anything, and I don’t have nearly as much as you.” He smiled over at her, softly chuckling as he released the cape. ”I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to uh, to whatever I eat if I kill it just for food. Let it live on in other ways, y’know?” It was an odd religious stance for the caves, borne out of kindness and respect for the creatures of them. It wasn’t like they had gems that… Carried themselves?

Wow, he didn’t want to get into the semantics of spirits right now. Turning his attention to the statuette, he held up close and pressed a finger to his chin. ”Aw man, you can tell?” It wasn’t hard to, really, but at least he got another laugh out of her. It made him feel good to hear the tiny giggles, his smile only growing wider.

”Yeah, denting. Kinda. Like.. Making scratches in it, usually. I should’a said that first.” He kept on, looking up at her when she turned around. A second shrug was offered. ”I kinda figured it out, I guess. There’s a bunch of carvings in rock in some of the tunnels, and I figured I could kinda try it with wood, and it worked to.. Varying degrees of success. You should see the first few tries.” He laughed out under his breath as he took a turn to avoid a square of stone. ”I guess claws would help, but it might hurt if you get something hard enough. I appreciate the offer, though, I do! Maybe I could show you how I do it when we get to your dad?”

@Bug