TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema had not slept since their attempt to find Voidmother had failed just a day prior. Instead she found herself wandering the area where the kooru had taken them, hoping for a sign they had missed to reach her senses in some way. The kooru accompanied her for a while when she paced the area at first, but eventually it seemed content enough to rest where Voidmother had made her bed in their base of operations and left her to continue her silent search. Though the bear had wondered what calmed the previously frantic lesser, she was too focused on finding a trail to her sister to really give it much thought. If she had, she might have guessed that the source of her worry was actually the one to have caused the kooru's sudden calmness.

The orbs in the cave had begun to brighten again by the time Tema allowed herself a break, stretching her sore muscles and letting out a loud yawn. She knew she'd be forced to rest soon, be it by her body's will or a worried Voidcrawler pinning her to her bed of soft moss. The though caused her to reach into her satchel instinctively, pulling out a small chunk of moss she had gathered. She did this often when she sought comfort, letting her mind dwell on nothing but the soft texture for a few moments before she replanted it in her sleeping place. By now the floor of her makeshift den was covered in soft greens, but that didn't stop her from continuing to grow more. Maybe some other Voidcrawlers could benefit from moss in their beds... She'd offer them some another day.

Settling the moss back in the satchel strapped to her upper forearm with vines, she fumbled with the leaf bag carefully to button it back up before taking one last look around. Cetus felt strange without the little snail to greet her in the mornings, but thankfully she was not entirely alone... Her kin had given her a whole new family of creatures to look out for while they waited for some sign of the Voidmother, so Tema would keep her word and care for them as she had promised upon taking her title as the Voidkin.

Well, she couldn't waste time then! She would hunt for lessers and gather some greens so the others didn't have to worry themselves with it. Maybe she'd look for stones to give Voidmother upon her eventual return or fun little trinkets to make fun stories about as a distraction... The possibilities were endless!

And so she was off to an area of Cetus she had never explored before, nose twitching and eyes alert.

OOC Notes: This thread takes place between the Power Vacuum and Ransom threads.

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

A faint shimmer caught her eye as she walked along the muddy trail she was following, changing her course as she went to investigate. It was nothing big and certainly not food, but there was surely someone who enjoyed shiny things in the Voidcrawlers. Carja would enjoy any trinket she was given for sure, and Kitty seemed to have a small hoard in her tree. Regardless, Tema picked up the object and wiped it clean of mud on her fur. She disliked being dirty, but her paws were already coated in the thick mud Cetus had to offer her. Another swipe of mud on her fur wasn't going to make much of a difference at this point.

She turned the stone over in her paws, trying not to dirty it again while she studied it. It was nothing more than a smooth rock with something silver in colour marbled on its surface, but the silver shone in the growing orblight and that was enough for Tema to collect it. She fumbled with her satchel again to open it before dropping the stone in, frowning at the mud her paws left behind on the satchel. Another thing she'd have to wash the moment she found clean water deep enough to wade into. Perhaps she'd make another trip to Fornax after all... Well, that was a thought for another time. She still had many more things to find.

OOC Notes:

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema took another look around, sniffing the air for any sign of something else nearby. Her past solo exploration efforts had been nearly fruitless, leading her to only a thin chain and pendant as well as a poor family of rabbits, so it really wasn't a surprise to Tema that her only find so far would be a shiny rock. Still, she had her heart set on finding more.

So, off she went, nose twitching even more frantically in an attempt to pick up any sort of scent in the misty cave. She knew hunting here would be much harder, especially now that she was picking her way through crevices between large rock formations, but a bear could dream... At the very least she would return with some greens she would pick on her way back, but having fresh meat as well would be the ideal outcome.

OOC Notes:

The Crags were great jutting slabs of stone, forming mud-filled passageways through which paws would slosh and stain black. Above the stones overlapped, shadowed ceilings of questionable stability: and through them ran the thick webs of Deer Spiders. The criss-crossing stones and their narrow paths formed the perfect place for the massive Lessers to nest: Gembound passing beneath would often get tangled in the immensely strong netting, leaving the spiders to spit or pierce their venom and feast upon their prey at their leisure. These spiders nested in the Crags in groups numbering into the dozens, and each spider was some four feet across.

Ahead was one such set of webbing: a thick clot, webs layered over older webs until dozens of feet of thick gray silk filled the trench. Beneath, however, lay bones and something else: something shimmering, blue-green and half-sunken in the mud. Two large Deer Spiders hung perhaps ten feet overhead, motionless; it wasn't clear if they were asleep, or if their many red and glittering eyes were silently watching Tema's approach.

Tema must roll to avoid becoming entangled in the webs, if she chooses to push forward. If she manages, she may uncover the prize shining ahead: a humanoid-shaped and -sized helmet formed of Amazonite, initially polished smooth but since chipped, scratched and stained by time. It has holes for the eyes, and the jaw area is left bare.

@Tema

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

The bear was forced to stop as an obstacle came into view. Having been looking at the ground a majority of the time, she was lucky she hadn't walked directly into the trap that was set out for her. She studied it, taking a slow step back upon seeing the 8-legged creatures resting above. They were nearly as big as she was if you counted the legs, and she was surely counting the legs. Considering the thickness of the web ahead of her, Tema had a feeling that these spiders wouldn't be satisfied eating just some bugs or cave mice...

She watched them in silence for a few breaths to ensure they weren't moving before she let herself look at the webs again, seeing the prize that sat below them... behind a few layers of web. Well, that was right on point with her luck as of late.

The bear shifted her weight a few times before stepping back up towards the web, lifting a paw hesitantly. They had just lost Voidmother... was a shiny treasure worth becoming a meal?

The Voidcrawlers!

Tema was struck with the memory of their forming, the magic of all the gembound gathered collecting and forming something new... She was sure of it. She had new magic resting within her, waiting patiently for her to call it forth. Though she had no clue quite what it was yet, maybe it could help her here? This situation came from chaos after all; she wouldn't have been there had someone not kidnapped the Voidmother or the kooru had not returned.

Steeling herself, the bear gently pressed her paw to the web infront of her and reached for her magic.

OOC Notes:

Long strands of spiderweb wisped away, sucked into the void of the Slimespace, undoubtedly entangling other half-forgotten treasures. The path ahead was in part cleared--enough for Tema to grasp for the prize.

The spiders did not react to the gentle vanishing of part of their web--perhaps they did not feel it; but the approach of the bear might or might not trigger a response.

@Tema

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema blinked a few times after the web got drawn into the void with her paw hanging in the empty air, not fully comprehending what had just happened. It was just... gone? Well, at least she knew what that particular strand of her magic did now. And she was right, it did help her.

Still wary of the spiders above, seemingly oblivious to her destruction of their web, Tema watched them again for a bit. Things were never this easy, were they?

But she had already made up her mind. She was halfway there now, only needing to claim her prize and get as far away as she could. It was just a matter of time before the spiders woke... if they were sleeping at all. So she stepped forward, reaching for the treasure with a paw and batting it towards her so that she could hopefully claim it without going much further into the webs. She had felt their strength for the moment she touched them, and they were not something she wanted to get stuck in.

OOC Notes:

The size of the bear was, perhaps, a deterrent--as was the fact that only two spiders lingered here. Or perhaps they had eaten recently. Either way, one did not move at all; was it even aware of Tema's presence below it? and the other twitched farther away, upward, two or three hurried steps.

The helm was claimed; it was hers now.

@Tema

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema picked the helmet up with her jaws, immediately regretting it as mud settled on her tongue. It didn't taste bad exactly, not that dirt tasted good either, but the slimy texture attempted to coax what little was in her stomach up and out. She fought the urge and looked up, fully expecting to see two giant spiders bearing down on her with whatever speed eight legs and a vertical climbing skill could give them. Much to her surprise, they still seemed rather disinterested, one of the pair even taking a few steps away from her. Apparently it really was just that easy this time around.

Unwilling to continue trying her luck with any more deer spiders, the bear backed up until she could no longer see the web, looking back every so often to ensure she didn't trip. Just for good measure, she took a few more steps back before she was confident enough to turn around and make her way out of the trench. And the Crags as a whole; she liked them less than Fornax after that, despite the ending being rather uneventful. She would much rather stick with the spiders smaller than her paw if she had any say in it, so she made a beeline away from the Crags and towards the tunnel entrance. There was less water around there and hopefully that meant more prey.

But first... the bear heaved once as she stepped out of the Crags, dropping the helm and frantically clearing her mouth of the mud. As much as she didn't want to put even more mud in her satchel, she really, really didn't want to throw up. So in the satchel it went and off she went right after.

OOC Notes:

Mild

gore

warning: wounded animal, animal death

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

As Tema got closer to the tunnel's entrance, the scent of blood grew stronger. Though she had caught small whiffs of it before from within the tunnel on her travels, this was the first time she'd smelt the blood of a wounded one and the first time she'd get the chance to see the source. Maybe it would prove to be her lucky day for once and it would be a lesser!

Hope driving her now, the bear trotted forward along the scent trail. Surprisingly, it wasn't leading into the tunnel. It led her along the wall of the cave for a short distance before banking away towards the heart and coming to a sudden stop at the base of a particularly large tree. Making a pitiful attempt to hide in the brush around its base was a badly wounded woolly deer. One of its antlers was missing, leaving behind only a small portion of the stump from which it grew. But that wasn't the worse of it. The deer's forelegs were bloody and torn, one sitting at an awkward angle that made it impossible for the creature to stand no matter how hard it tried to with a bear looking down at it. The deer was injured trying to protect its young, she guessed.

As much as the bear wanted to give her prey a chance to run, there was no opportunity here for the deer. Even if she walked away now, some other predator would find it and make it a meal. So she dealt with the deer swiftly, both happy to have meat to bring home and sad that the lesser had suffered.

It was fitting, almost, that the deer had suffered for the same cause that Tema stood for. But wasn't that just the way of life, giving it all for what you thought was right? In the end of it all Tema hopped that she would be shown the same mercy when her time came.

Until then? She needed to feed her family.

OOC Notes: