Kitty generally liked to stay high up in the trees of Pegasus. She did not like to venture from them. While she was not the only creature in the caves who was skilled at navigating treetops, she was far more vulnerable on the ground than when she was up high, and generally liked to avoid being spied on -- especially since the Voidmother's kidnapping, which had left her nervous and scared.

However, Tunnel F had one advantage over most of the other tunnels -- it had trees. It was an easy thing to leap up one and settle on the low branches, especially when she was here more or less by necessity. The simple fact was, Tunnel F was full of gemstones, and Kitty was looking for some.

Mostly for decoration, especially as her ideas came together for her new den, but especially, she wanted to see if she could make pigment out of some. It had been an idea she'd gotten after experimenting with berries, mostly, but she was pretty sure that gemstones would give a more vivid color -- not to mention, they could very well be mixed together.

They were plentiful in the caves, pretty much everywhere, but there were certainly more in Tunnel F than in Pegasus. So here she was, in the lowest branches of the tunnel, looking around for gemstones she could use.

At first, she nearly missed it, until a smidge of light caught her eye. There was a glimmer of something orange in the dirt, and she leapt down to inspect it. She cringed and started to dig at the dirt in a probably comically dainty way, revealing more of it. It seemed to be partially stuck to the harder stone beneath.

Kitty probably stuck out in this tunnel, especially considering the yellow cloth ribbon tied neatly around her neck with a bow in the back. She even had a star chart in pretty purple gemstone around her neck, but she wasn't willing to part with that one just yet. "How to I get you?" Kitty mused, tilting her head slightly. This one... was going to be tricky.

Kitty paused. Maybe she could... get rid of it, just for a moment. And then bring it back! That's what the Voidmother did, right? Kitty set a paw on the piece of amber, concentrating on it and pushing her magic out. It wouldn't work, but honestly, she had no way of knowing that, and so she was trying. The swirling purple-and-yellow vortex opened above the amber, and for a moment, she was hopeful... even though it shouldn't have been above it.

Then, a massive glob of slime was dropped onto her paw. Kitty made a disgusted sound, her paw recoiling violently. "I-- excuse me!" she growled, wiping her paw off on the grass. This stuff was not only nasty, it was persistent, and it clumped in her fur something awful.

On the bright side, no matter how nasty it was, it didn't really taste like much. She had gotten things on her fur that tasted way worse. Wholly distracted, Kitty began the process of grooming herself, fussing over her slimy paw to try and clean all of the mess off of herself. Gross.

Aran had been exploring, he didn't know what any of these caves or tunnels were called, or that he had a home previously in one of them. Not knowing why there was such a large blank time period in his memories didn't seem to bother him somehow - he just assumed he chrysalized again for some reason or another and stayed for a long time. It wouldn't have been unusual for a gembound, at least he thought it wasn't.

His ears flicked at the sound of someone's angry shout, and the barasingha couldn't help but turn himself in that direction to see what was going on. Navigating through the trees and crystals however, turned out to be a difficult feat for the rather large deer-shaped gembound. He had to go through various directions to get to where the sound came from, and it was times like this that he wished he was small enough to climb through.

Seeing the blotch of red and yellow was different to the other colors in the area by quite a bit. There was... Slime on her paw? Was that magic?

"Are you okay?" He voiced, if Kitty didn't know he was there before she sure would now.

@Kitty

Her head snapped up, ears perked and fur fluffed out -- but after a moment, she noted that this was a deer, and probably not a threat. Kitty relaxed slightly, taking note of the green-speckled horns. It was a unique characteristic, and she noted that she'd seen him with Madhukar's weird friend at the Wild Hunt. She sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just being dramatic, mostly."

Kitty nodded to the amber. "Do you have anything that could break this off of the substrate, by any chance?" Her tail curled halfway around her. "I'm looking for rocks that I can make into dyes -- I want this one, but it's kind of stuck here." She peered at it. "Although, I might be able to get it if I had something to hack at the base of it with, like a pointed rock." She was, as of yet, unaware that Aran couldn't see.



@aran

The Queen peered down from above, laying on her belly on her woven balcony, nothing seen but the barest hint of a shadow among the woven branches. She, being so close to the weave, could see through easily, and watched the pair curiously. It wasn't often that people lingered.

"I don't often get visitors," she purred, crawling down the trunk of a tree, a different mask on today, this one cherubic, the one from her first cycle of life.

It had soft features and chubby cheeks, with pink lips and cheeks and soft brows. Nothing like the graceful, womanly one she normally wore, the one that Kitty would have seen her with previously.

A wisp appeared behind her, floating around the tunnel as if it had appeared from out of one of the glowing stones themselves.

"If you want, I can assist you," she hummed, "What are your names?"

@Kitty @Aran

Aran watched through the bird-skull pendant as the red panda mentioned she wanted the stone out of the ground. He wondered what it was - but that wasn't all that important in the moment. Her question rang in his head, and Aran didn't have the slightest ideas of how to get the amber out of the soil. He was reminded of one of his spells then, but he didn't want to potentially damage his mouth to get the amber out of the dirt. Then again, the spell did give him a stronger bite and would give him those sharp front teeth to grasp at things.

"I have an idea but it might not work." He mused, finally.

Aran had to look down with his head to use the pendant to see correctly, but the blank eyes of the lesser (he had no idea what it was anymore) caught the stone in it's eyes, and did alert him to the shape. He could grab it if the bite was strong enough, maybe. Or if they found some other thing to push underneath it, like a stick. There would be plenty of those in the area, since it was completely overgrown with trees. Seeing what kind of dyes could be made with the stones would be interesting too, maybe he should ask about it.

Before Aran could say that, though, someone else came into the picture. An intimidating bug with... Some odd traits. Buglike, huge, and he had no idea how she fit within the trees if the deer himself hardly could. Dangerous a feeling in his body told him. That gembound could be dangerous. She had a mask covering her face, and spoke in a way that was more friendly than he expected.

"Aran. Yours?" He voiced.

The deer mostly ignored the wisp that seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

@Kitty

Arwen looked mostly harmless from where she popped up, but she still startled Kitty slightly. The mask wasn't familiar, of course, and neither was the size laying on her belly as she was -- although the voice struck a chord with her, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It did look kind of like a bee, though. She tilted her head slightly. "I'm Kitty. Aran and me are trying to get this rock up -- I'm collecting stuff for dyes."

She glanced at Aran. "Do whatever you think might work. I'm gonna go look for a rock." It needed to be a certain shape for her to properly hack at the amber, but it's connection to the ground wasn't super sturdy. It was a soft, brittle stone -- honestly, she'd probably have plenty of luck if one such rock turned up. It would just take a little... patience.

"I can't find any rocks," she called back to the group.



@aran @arwen

The Queen never forgot a face, or a name. She smiled beneath her mask and set her hands upon the ground, raising herself up onto all six legs.

"Aran and Kitty," she hummed, "You can call me... Bumble."

She crept forward and peered down at the stone, head tilting to one side owlishly. She poked it and hummed, eyes narrowing.

"You wish to get it out?", she asked, though she already knew the answer.

Away she went, disappearing into the trees, the branches parting for her as she scuttled through a hole in the overgrowth. She disappeared for a few moments, the trees giving no hint as to where she'd gone.

"This might do."

The Queen returned with a slab of thick bark, one she'd been using as a plate to hold berries and other foods. She'd have to discard it, but it would make due as a shovel, at least for now.

"May I ask a favor in return?", she crooned, tapping her sharp fingers against the item, "Only that the both of you drop by again at some point. For company and a meal, I get awfully lonely here, nobody ever stops to stay, always coming to and fro."

@Aran

Kitty was interested in dyes, Aran was kind of curious - he would have to ask later. He didn't plan on helping much now that the... Bug.... Thing was there and offered to help her instead. It would be hard for him to get that close to the ground anyway, without walking around with his head outstretched to the dirt to get his neck that low anyway. Which would look weird, and then his depth perception would be off and he'd most likely get a face full of dirt.

Maybe he should think about moving that pendant onto his head somewhere.

The pause before the other gembound said her name made the deer suspicious. Still, he didn't say anything about it. His curiosity got the better of him when 'Bumble' said something about eating.

"What do you eat exactly?" He felt it to be a valid question, but he didn't refuse.

@Kitty

Kitty's eyes lit up at 'Bumble' and her offer of the bark (although she was worried that it would just break rather than getting her anywhere). Kitty tilted her head slightly at Bumble's request, though. She eyed the other creature for a moment, mulling her offer over and ultimately giving a shrug. "Sure! Sounds like fun. Maybe I'll bring some of my family along."

She made grabby hands at the bark. "By the way, are you by any chance related to that giant bee thing I met at the Festival in Polaris? The one that had the two heads?" She knew that the creature had been trying to hide their form, but Kitty had seen it anyway -- past visions and such. In fact, she'd even seen Arwen, and now, recalling it... "Actually, I recognize you!" Kitty smiled. "Your face -- I didn't know you at first, but you were joining them, weren't you?"

"I'm glad they found others like them," Kitty said, "or, at least, I hope so." It would've meant that her reading was accurate, at any rate.


@arwen @aran