Sun had been travelling for several days now, having left the children back in Eridanus under the care of Comet. He had travelled through several new caves, that he had never seen or had no idea what the name was. He had been wishing he had time to stop and explore them more but he was on a mission. He was also not entirely sure he was going the right way, after all he was just going on what James had told him. Finally he had made his way to the tunnel James had warned him of, the fact that the ground was very hot. He wasn’t sure just how hot that was but it worried him. He had made his way through quickly the ground itself getting hotter the longer and farther in he went.

Finally he had emerged in a beautiful area. The orbs were high above and bright here, the ground was warm but not unpleasantly so. James had told him his best bet on finding Talys was near the beach, and so that was where Sun headed. At least he hoped he headed in the right direction. It took him awhile but finally he made it to a large body of water. Something unlike anything he had ever seen. It was big and beautiful and glittering. Sun gasped, smiling the sight itself, taking his breath away. He wished someday he could bring the children here. Pulling himself from his stupor, Sun began to walk along the water's edge. He was looking for the dark skinned mostly hairless creature James had told him about.

@Talys

Talys was laying flat on his back and staring up at the orbs. His legs hurt, specifically his ankles and specifically at the juncture between the bones that made the pointy part. He had his basalt necklace around his neck, but he was cupping the rock in his hands and wondering, distantly, where his brother was. Maybe Selenite would know how to mitigate this pain? Was it something all humanoids had? He wondered, distantly.

The water hadn't helped.

He sighed and draped an arm over his eyes, ignoring his wild puff of hair. He needed to figure out a way to comb it down, soon -- it grew much faster than he'd been expecting it to when he was born, not like the animals whose fur stayed more or less the same length all over.


@sun-wukong

Sun walked across the warm sands, his emerald green eyes keeping a close watch for anything that could possibly be the creature James had told him about. This place was far more beautiful than he had expected the place to be, as James had explained it he had assumed that the ground would be much hotter. However the sand was actually just gently warm to the touch and not at all what he had been expecting.

The golden furred gibbon walked upright mostly with a slight forward lean to him, as he held his solid wooden staff in his left hand, a rabbit skin bag draped around his shoulder and across his chest. The bag filled with precious things he required for his task.

The gibbon had been walking for a bit when he spotted a form laying on the sand. Its skin was a deep dark color, and its fur was just dark and very long. It was rather large, taller than him by quite a bit. Or at the very least that was how it seemed from afar. Slowly cautiously Sun approached the creature but stopped at a safe distance away. ”Hello? Are you Talys?” Sun called out to the creature hoping he had found them.

@Talys

Talys pulled his arm away, glancing over at Sun-Wukong. He sat up, pointedly ignoring his pain, and forced a grin. "Yep! Sure am!" He looked the creature over, inspecting it. It was like him, but smaller and more furry. He squinted at his hand, and held up both of his own. Same shape! Although Sun's feet were the same shape, and Talys's looked different. He folded his legs up into an overly-twisty position by instinct, leaning forward to watch the creature. "How can I help you?"

He didn't know how Sun-Wukong knew him, but he was assuming it was through James or Selenite. He hadn't met all that many other people.



@sun-wukong

Sun watched as the creature unfolded himself and answered. Great, it hadn’t taken him too overly long to find the gembound he had been looking for. A light warm smile settled on the gibbon’s lips as the creature set up. His emerald eyes took in the strange furless body of the creature in front of him. It was strange that he only seemed to have fur on his head. As the one known as Talys held up his hands and inspected them Sun held out his own and noticed they were much the same as this creatures. He couldn’t help but wonder if somewhere, somehow they might possibly be related.

As Talys asked what he could do for him, Sun smiled even brighter. ”My name’s Sun-Wukong. I am James’ son. He told me you might be able to help me make somethings.” Sun introduced himself and explained why he had come seeking Talys. As he did the little gibbon dug into the bag slung around him and produced a fist sized stone. I thought you might be able to help me break these gems down into smaller pieces and make necklaces out of them. I need to make seven of them.” Sun explained in a warm friendly tone.

@Talys

Talys nodded at the mention of James. "Yeah, I know him! Tell him I said hi." He stretched his hand out to take the stone, inspecting the way the light shone through it. "Well, I'll see what I can do," he said. "Some rocks are way harder to break than others, and some just shatter if you try to break them. I'll have to poke around with them. I'll bet my basalt isn't hard enough..." He brushed himself off and stood up off the sand, passing the rock back to Sun. "Here, follow me, I've got some pieces from my chrysalis that might be helpful."

The humanoid was walking with a bit of a limp, his feet turned out now as they stepped across the uneven surface of the sand. Certainly, it didn't look very comfortable, but it was the best way for him to alleviate the pain he was in, at least until he learned how to manage it more effectively. Although... Sun-Wukong's walking stick gave him an idea. He'd follow up on it later.


@sun-wukong
sorry for the wait!

Sun perked up smiling brightly as Talys beamed at the mention of James. He was glad that another gembound thought so highly of his Renny as he did. ”I will when he comes to visit again.” The gibbon assured the elf with a soft nod. He would tell James that Talys said hi of course, he was no messenger but he would try to remember. Though it shouldn’t be too hard as Talys was one of the few Gembound he had met.

Sun listened intently as Talys admitted that he wasn’t sure how well it would work, that each gemstone was different in how strong it was. Sun nodded, crossing his arms holding his staff over his chest in thought. He took the gemstone back from Talys and placed it back in his bag. ”I hope you can help me. These were the stones I had picked out for each of my family. I’m wanting to make gemstone necklaces for my family. Whatever is left of the stones you can have if you’d like.” Sun offered for Talys to keep the remains of whatever stone was left when they tried to make the necklaces.

Sun smiled and nodded following after Talys. ”You seem to be in a bit of pain. Perhaps I can help.” Sun offered, he had a small sachet of herbs that Aristotle had taught him would help pain that he often kept with him just in case. The sachet a mix of Iceberry bark, Cat’s claw, and Matico leaves. The Gibbon dug in his bag producing the small bunch of herbs tied in a small piece of rabbit skin. The gibbon offered it up to Talys. ”CHew a pinch and swallow it. There’s a couple of days there so it should help.” The Gibbon explained kindly hoping the elf would take his kindness. ”I can even bring you more if you like, or you can visit me in Eridanus I really don’t mind.” Sun smiled warmly, he was a rather friendly character and deeply kind as his fathers had taught him to be.

@Talys
No worries! Take your time!

"That's fine," Talys shrugged, kind of dismissive of Sun's offer to keep the remnants. "I have a lot of jewelry as it is, I can't even wear all of it at the same time." His mouth twisted into a wry smile. He only had one around his neck at present, his most precious treasure -- a chunk of jagged basalt pilfered from the base of the volcano. It'd chipped a little bit since he first got it, but that was fine. He could manage.

He paused and glanced down when Sun-Wukong drew attention to his pain. "Oh, uh, yeah? That kind of... happens now." He had no earthly clue why. He looked down at the offered bundle, taking it carefully. "Oh... um, thank you!" Well damn, now he really needed to figure out something for Sun. He took a little bit out and started to chew on it, cringing a little bit at the taste as he stuffed the pouch into a crevice in the rocks.

They'd stopped by now, at a little break in one of the cave walls where a rocky sort of pillar met it. There was a leaf draped over the front, and a few of Talys's treasures were tucked inside. Some were buried in the sand, others were hanging on the jagged walls. He took a chunk of diamond that was sticking out of the sand and turned to sit down, gesturing for Sun to reveal the stones. "Alright, let's see what I can do."


@sun-wukong

Sun nodded not upset about having Talys dismiss his offer of the gem remnants. A soft laugh left the primate as Talys admitted he had more jewelry than he needed. ”I can see how that would be a problem. Then I may keep them to decorate my home with then.” Sun mused aloud hoping it wouldn’t bother his companion. Sun took in the necklace Talys wore and smiled. ”Lovely gem you have there.” Sun commented on Talys’ necklace with a smile and a quick motion toward his own neck where Talys’ necklace would be.

Sun smiled warmly when Talys paused for a moment and looked down at the mention of his pain. ”It’s alright, they may just be growing pains. I used to get them when I was young, that’s when my father the herbalist put that little concoction of herbs together for me and taught me the recipe.” It wasn’t a hard thing to do really, the hardest part was drying the herbs because it took the longest. Well that and growing the herb itself but that was neither here nor there.

Sun took in Talys’ home, it wasn’t large but it was homey indeed/ As Talys took a seat Sun took a seat not far away in front of Talys. The Gibbon crossed his legs and took off his bag placing it in his lap for a moment. Then Talys asked for the gems and he picked each one out of the bag and placed them in the sand between them. The gems were a Rhodochrosite, Blue Topaz, Emerald, Diabolite, Kunzite, Idocrase, and Tourmaline. Sun smiled warmly once more at Talys. ”These are what I have, I hope it’s not too much trouble.” The Gibbon commented as he gazed down at each of the gems then back up at Talys.

@Talys

He took the rhodochrosite first, and scratched it lightly. The diamond made a mark, and he scratched at it a little more vigorously to try and make a small rivet for the diamond to go. Then, he pressed the diamond against the rock, and using the leverage, pushed down on the stone to try and make more of a hole. He twisted it back and forth. A crack suddenly carved through its cleavage, thankfully on an edge, and he grimaced. "Okay, so. This one, it's soft enough to scratch, but it's really brittle. That's kind of a theme with gemstones," he admitted. "That means it'll probably break if I keep trying to do this, especially 'cause it's in a line, see?" He held the stone up to the light and pointed at the cleavage line.

"The best thing for this one is probably to wrap some kind of twine around it," he said, showing him how he'd wrapped the cord around his basalt as an example. "It works best with something really thin. I didn't have metal to do it with, but I think if you could get a small enough piece of metal, it'd work really well. I could also try to work it on the other side, because it'll only crack this way." He had minimal experience with the stuff, having found only scraps here and there, but he liked it enough to brainstorm over.

Talys repeated the test on the rest of the stones. The topaz, kunzite, diaboletite, and tourmaline were too brittle for what Sun had in mind, but the emerald and the idocrase could be worked with great patience. By the end of it, the stones were a little chipped up, but Talys had been careful to maintain the bulk of them. He sighed. "So, only two of these can really have holes put in them. The rest you'll have to do something like I did with my rock, or I could try to make a metal thing to set them in. That might take me a while, though, and you might have better luck asking the Blacksmith. Or a blacksmith, doesn't have to be THE blacksmith. I want to do that kind of thing, eventually, but I'm still learning."


@sun-wukong