Warmth. They needed warmth. Morpho knew of something that could help- an old navy cloak. He'd gotten it so long ago, he could hardly remembered where he put it.

This cave brought back memories. Vague memories, but memories nonetheless. He'd called it home, once. When he was without his family. Alone. Except for Pip... I miss her.. As soon as the thought bubbled up, it was washed away. He had his family, now. He didn't need anything else.

As he moved along, his eyes scanned the area- both for any signs of his cloak, and signs of prey. Getting food for both himself and Mother would be nice, and if there was any easy prey around, he might as well.

A flicker of movement caught his many insectoid eyes. He just barely caught what it was- a flying pitch rat, startled out of hiding. It was now too far for him to catch, but where there's one flying pitch rat, there's got to be more. He kept his eyes out.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

He continued, though now far more focused on finding the flying pitch rat than the blue cloak. He walked with a slow almost shaky hesitance characteristic of praying mantises- though it would've been far more effective camouflage in Eridanus than Orion.

Another flying rat fluttered by, started from some nearby nook out into the open. He swiped at it and missed, causing it simply let out a panicked squeak and fled. Surely, the other flying pitch rats would follow- though with his luck, he wouldn't catch any of them.

Maybe he should look for something that can't fly.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

His search continued, eyes alert, looking for any sign of movement- the darting of a shadow, a flutter of wings or a blur scrambling through the ruins. Looking for anything that could feed mother- or himself.

Coiled in the a pile of rubble, nearly indistinguishable from it, was a Lurker. He only spotted it by the glint of it's many eyes, and the way it subtly shifted as it prepared to strike.

Perfect.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

The snake let out a vicious hiss before lunging, it's fangs sinking into his left forearm while the rest of it's body thrashed violently. The sickening crunch of chitin and stab of pain was unexpected, catching him off guard. He'd been confident- these snakes normally went after prey far smaller than him- but now that confidence was all but gone.

He shook his claw wildly, trying to get the snake to release it's grip. The snake relinquished it's hold, coiling back into a defensive position, staring at the giant insect in a silent standoff.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

His previously-bitten claw still painfully throbbing, he lashed out, trying to grab the snake, preferably in a way where it couldn't just twist around and bite him again. He missed, the snake nimbly darting out of the way only to twist back, wrapping itself around one of his legs. It was enough to almost throw him off balance- but luckily, not much more than that.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

Again, he striked. Trying to rip the serpent off of his leg. At least, hopefully it'd be easier to hit. He was now thoroughly regretting trying to hunt the snake- hopefully he could finish it off relatively quick.

His claws found their mark, grabbing the snake just below it's head and pulling it away from where it wrapped around his leg- nearly unbalancing him completely in the process. The snake hissed and thrashed, unable to free itself.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

death

Claws dug into the writhing serpent, attempting to still it. It hissed, violently struggling towards freedom. He needed to just do it- he could risk not getting a clean kill.

Crunch.

The snake stilled, falling limp in his claws. He hoisted it onto his back- he wouldn't eat until he got back to Ursa. Would be easier, that way.

Making sure the snake was secure, he continue on his search for his old cloak- the entire reason he'd come here in the first place.

Look i sit and witness
Turning of the leaves

Unluckily for Morpho, someone else had gotten to it first.

Abra was absolutely ENCHANTED by Orion. The ceiling of glittering crystals was simply captivating, and many a times she found herself staring up rather than where she was going, causing her to be even more clumsy than she tended to be.

They had stumbled upon the unique stash of items while trying to find a sample of the glittering crystals that dotted the ceiling. Tucked into a little nook in a half-collapsed building were three items.

The first was a large silver bracelet with a purple gem set in it's center. Abra slipped it on, only for it to shrink perfectly to their size, drawing a surprised squeak from them. They grinned, examining the strange bracelet- clearly a keeper!

The second was a orange-pink piece of silk, a square several feet across on either side. She turned it around, examining it. It wasn't magical in nature like the bracelet seemed to be, but it was soft and a nice color and a rare find in general. They bunched it up and shoved it to the side, revealing the final item.

Last, and not least, was the stare of the show- a large navy-blue cape.

Immediately Abra put it on- it was a bit too big, but Abra didn't care in the slightest. They spread their arms out, the cape draping over them like wings.

Oh, definitely a keeper.

However, in her excitement, Abra forgot about something. Her roughly-made lawsonite necklace- something she'd made to keep the gemstone safe and with her until she figured out what to do with it- unraveled and tumbled to the ground. Abra didn't notice through her excitement, she simply left with the bracelet and the navy cloak, leaving the poor lawsonite behind.

As excited as she was about her finds, they had originally been looking for something entirely different, something they still aimed to find.

They made their way through the winding geography, looking for any glimmer of brilliant white crystal that was both small enough to take home and within reach. A surprisingly hard feat, considering the abundance of said crystals on the ceiling. Abra found her search so far to be fruitless- had she spent all her luck on stumbling upon that stash of goodies?

Regardless, she continued on wards. There had to be SOMETHING around here SOMEWHERE. She wandered through the penumbral gloom of Orion, eyes peeled for the glimmer of quartz crystals.

Finally, she found something, but something wasn't really saying once. It was the tiniest fragment of quartz, a small white pebble no bigger than a piece of gravel. Still, she held onto it. Surely there'd be more around here, though.