Action. Thought. "Speech."

Forgraves looked utterly and completely exhausted.

there were deep purple bags under his eyes, specs lay crooked on his face, the fox having no extra energy to put them back in place. he'd been, for the purposes of progressing with the shelters, moving to pegasus for the time being. he was planning on moving to canis to be closer to his father, aswell as his newfound friend Oliver, but it had to be put aside. he didn't have time for personal ventures that lasted longer than a few minutes, or thats what hes seemed to have convinced himself of.

along with a small leaf bag of other trinkets tied to his ankle, he dragged the large belt to his new little hiding spot, panting heavily as he put it down just for a moment, to rest and breathe. god he was tired. he'd had to begin moving ALL of his belongings. he didnt have much, but it didnt make it any easier given the fact 2 of said things were twice his size.

he flopped onto the floor. he'd continue in a minute. or 5.

@Kitty

Kitty had been hunting high up in the trees of Pegasus, peering down from above, when she'd noticed something white moving laboriously through the grass. She had watched it, for a while, even jumping to another nearby tree to follow it a while longer.

She liked to watch things below her. The trees gave her a safe place -- she was black underneath, so she was hard to spot up high, especially if she stayed still. If not, she would have just looked like some kind of tree squirrel or something, especially now -- coming out of a hunt (which had been successful, thank you), she was entirely undecorated.

The white thing had something with it. A weapon, it looked like, and something pink and shiny caught the light. Curiosity sufficiently piqued, Kitty began to make her way down the nearest tree. She stopped a few feet up it -- close enough to talk, but far enough that she was out of Forgraves's physical reach. "Hello," she said, standing upside down on the side of a tree. If Forgaves looked closely, he might have noticed that her back feet were facing the wrong way. "What's that?"


@forgraves

Action. Thought. "Speech."

He looked up, finally having a moment to fix his specs to atleast see kitty better, and waved best he could. "hi." he chirped. he looked down at the belt, just kinda staring at it for a moment, as if he himself had forgotten. truth was he really just was... so tired. all of his braincells went into moving.

"Belt." he responded. "found it in leo. moving dens. its heavy."

he looked to kitty. "who are you? im sorry, i.. forgot to ask" he asked, lowering his head in slight embarassment.

@Kitty

She blinked down at Forgaves, examining the belt. It was more than just that, clearly! But in Leo...? "There's pretty things in Leo?" she clarified, still eyeing the stones. The gemstones in particular... well, they were small enough to be easily transported, were a pretty pink, and with there being so many of them, Kitty was... jealous.

She imagined what it might have looked like to have that many stones strung up in her new den, baubled to keep the shadows away and make her space look warm and inviting. If she were a worse panda, she might have tried to steal it from him. As it were, though, she didn't think that would go over well (and besides, it looked heavy).

"I'm Kitty," she explained. "I'm a fortune teller, you know? I can see things that most Gembound can't. I can see where something came from, and if it's magic or not." Okay, that last part was a blatant lie. She wasn't a saint. She could try, though. Kitty smiled sweetly. "I could help you see what it is, if you want. But you'd have to give me something in return." She nodded at the belt. "One of those stones would do, or something similar."

She wanted more than one. But she wouldn't push her luck.


@forgraves

Action. Thought. "Speech."

He raised an eyebrow at kitty. "i mean, kinda... in the underforge, i think its called? i dunno.. theres probably more stuff like it in there.. he hummed.

he looked up at her again, nodding. "Forgraves, uh... that sounds cool" he chirped. he considered it. he did remember feeling just the slightest bit odd looking at the gemstones, especially the big one in the middle. if she could actually tell what it was, or let alone if it was magic or not, then best case scenario his worries are put to rest. worst case, he needs to deal with the moral quandries of owning a belt with a live gemstone on it.

he nodded. "sounds fair. you can have.." he strailed off, looking at the gemstones. he didn't want there to be an uneven number, that'd just frustrate him and make it look unfinished. "two. these two." he said, pointing to two specific jewels on the belt. "you can really tell me all that..? for these?" he asked. "i mean.. go ahead, if you can.. i'll, uh.. work on getting these off for you." he chirped, clawing at the jewels with a huff.

@Kitty

Kitty's eyes lit up. "Deal." Two was better than one, especially since she was definitely going to try to see if it was magic. Whether she would be able to or not... remained to be seen. Her main power was sort of reflexive, not really something she did consciously. She sort of just put her paw on a thing and if she asked, sometimes it would show her its history.

For now, she climbed down the tree and sat in front of the belt. "I do need to touch it," she warned, and sat up on her hind legs. Kitty placed her paws on either side of the main stone, closing her eyes for a moment. Maybe if she just... asked if it was magic? Like she asked if it had a history. Kitty focused on that for a while, letting her breathing grow even.

She drew in a breath and opened her eyes to find a sudden, powerful pulse of magic. The thulite in the center was almost blinding in its intensity -- almost like it wanted to escape, like it was desperate. Not that a stone could be sentient, but still... it concerned her, somewhat. She recoiled slightly, blinking the light from her eyes as the spell faded.

Kitty nearly wanted to lie. She nearly wanted to keep it. But she knew what the Voidmother would have said -- this was a life-stone, and it was precious. Kitty looked to Forgraves, suddenly deadly serious. "This stone in the center is a life stone. A very powerful one. That is precious beyond belief, the potential for life -- and the amount of magic inside of it. Don't take it lightly, Forgraves." She paused and looked him over appraisingly, before her eyes softened. "If that's not a responsibility you want or are prepared for, my Mother might be willing to keep it safe for you, and make sure it found love and life when she could."

Who was she kidding? Sunny would jump at the chance. Still, she didn't want to seem like she was coming on too strong.


@forgraves

The pulse of magic in return was so strong that it seemed almost trapped.

The Thulite at the belt's center, the largest of the gemstones dotting its length, undoubtedly held Master-level magic within it. It pulsed with it, brushing over Kitty's senses almost overwhelmingly. Oh, yes; this stone's magic was alive, and it had once been powerful.

@Kitty

Action. Thought. "Speech."

He waits, patiently, tugging at the gems as she does her think, nodding passively as he tries his damndest to get them off.

just as Kitty turns to him again, he falls backward as one of them lfies off, landing beside kitty. convenient! he turned to her, eyes wide. "what!?" he near yelled. he didn't NOT expect it, but a powerful one? what does that even mean? who did this gem BELONG to? and how powerful were they to make someone recoil from the sheer force of it? he thought, for a moment. if anything, he hoped it was just... an enchantment. not an actual live stone!

what was he getting himself into...?

he thought. would he want to give this one away..?
he could only think not. he found it, and it had already been fastened to a damn belt of all things, left to rot in the abandoned underforge. who was he to let it get passed around! he didn't even know what was in it!
he thought. "i think i might keep it, but... i will let you know if something changes."

he paused on that previous thought. what WAS in it? "you said you could tell me where it came from, right..? if i give you the rest of the smaller gems, could you try to do that?" he asked, obviously incredibly curious.

@Kitty

Kitty flinched when Forgraves shouted, her paws withdrawing slightly, but she recovered quickly enough. He'd just startled her, mostly. When he shot down her offer to give it to Sunny, she nodded and left it at that. She wasn't going to try and force him -- she certainly didn't want to give the Voidcrawlers a bad reputation or anything. They were a loving family, not people who stole things!

Her eyes snapped to Forgraves, suddenly... greedy, like she was looking at something she was about to hunt. She wanted those rocks, damnit, and she'd do whatever she had to in order to get them. "Deal. I might even be able to tell you who put it in the belt, if I get lucky." She stretched and settled down to place both of her paws on the thulite this time.

As far as she knew, she was always accurate with this -- nobody had, as of yet, proven her wrong. "This takes a random memory from the stone's history," she explained. "So it should show me who used to be inside it." Unless she got famously unlucky, but. In that case, she could very well just lie.

She was pulled abruptly into the heat, sights, and sounds of the forge. She looked around, wide-eyed, and stared at the Thulite. Not quite, apparently. Then, she was snapped back to reality. "The one who took the life stone was... gray, and big. With claws." She paused. "The one who made the belt was... tall, with black clothes and a mask on. Big horns, too."

Kitty looked back to Forgraves. "It didn't show me the creature, yet. I'll try again. I seriously doubt I'll get the same message twice."



@forgraves

A twitch, a spasm of reality, and Pegasus was abruptly replaced.

Heat blasted her. The rock walls shimmered with it, mirage upon mirage, and acrid smoke curled through the air. Somewhere, in the background, hammers clanged on iron. Across an anvil, a fat Thulite gem still clattered to a halt from where the thick-fingered, clawed grey hand had tossed it. "AN' MAKE SURE THEY MATCH," came the growl, followed by unpleasant belly-laughter.

The mask-faced, black-cloaked creature--the Blacksmith, had Kitty before seen him--stared at the stone for a moment, with a slight sag of his shoulders; and a hand reached out to take the gem, folding it into his own, slender digits and out of sight.

The image flickered and faded, and Kitty was dropped with abrupt dizzying clarity back into Pegasus, its air cool and clean.

@Kitty