Kitty sighed and stood up for a moment to stretch, yawning along with it. She was going to sleep well tonight -- this was hard, exhausting work and it was starting to wear on her. "Probably one or two more before I take another break," she decided. "In the meantime, let's keep going down our list, I guess."

She picked her next stone -- sixteen. "I'm getting closer to being done anyway," she decided. "I can probably get done if I push myself a little -- at least I know I won't pass out this time if I just totally exhaust myself again." She laughed slightly. "Anyway."

Kitty's next order of business was someone she'd heard of in passing -- a creature living in Canis, who called himself Collector. He had something for whatever you were looking for, Kitty had been told -- but she didn't trust that. Everything came with a price. "I certainly wouldn't give away my treasures," she shrugged. "Unless there was a really good reason, I guess."

Still, she couldn't deny... the allure of something shiny, new, and magical was a strong one and Kitty was a greedy creature at heart. She loved to add to her collection -- perhaps if she kept her wits about her, a visit to the Collector wouldn't be too bad?

Kitty picked up her next stone. Seventeen, was it? She mulled matters over. "I mean, surely it couldn't be too bad if I just... go in and ask to see some of his stuff," she said with a shrug. "Maybe he'll trade for something good." She frowned. She wasn't really willing to part with any of her stuff, but... "I could always bring him a couple options," she reasoned. "Stuff I like the least. That sort of thing."

She rolled the thulite under her paw. "Maybe he'll have shiny stuff like Forgraves found." Pink light flared up to meet her, and she rolled the thulite back into the pile with the others. She huffed softly -- she was exhausted. "Alright," Kitty mumbled, "time to rest for a minute. Just... take a breather. And I guess mull the Collector over."

She blinked down at the stones and selected number eighteen. "The Collector," she mused. "Collects things, I imagine. I like to collect things." She rolled the thulite over in her paw and sighed. "Maybe he has shiny stuff that I could take." She smiled wryly. Stealing didn't suit her, really -- even if it was tempting, sometimes. Magic pushed into the stone, and dim light flared up to meet her. Kitty rolled it over to join the others.

"This is so boring," she muttered, staring at her glowing pile. At least she was almost done.

As Kitty selected the next stone and let her mind wander, it began to drift absentmindedly back to the chalcedony. Comet had passed it to her, and asked her to... revive it, more or less. Give it a family. Comet had assured Kitty that she'd be a good mother, but she wasn't sure if she exactly agreed -- this was ground she'd already tread today. But now, instead of nay-saying herself, she mulled quietly over her virtues. Surely, Comet had to have seen something in her.

The thulite rolled under her paw. She had a family, at least -- she'd tried to convince Forgraves to pass his life-stone over to Sunny, even. The thought of passing it along to Sunny didn't even occur to her -- she'd kept it a secret from the Voidcrawlers, even if it was only a lie of omission. She didn't know if the Voidmother would have minded; probably not, but... still. Kitty sighed, and let her magic push out. A pink glow rushed up to meet her, and once again, it was dismissed to the pile with the rest of them.

"I could make things for a kid, at least," she said, taking another stone. "I'm good at that kind of thing. I could, like, teach it how to make dyes and climb and hunt and stuff." She rolled the stone under her paw -- it was becoming an almost soothing motion for her. She paused, and smiled slightly at the thought. A fluffy little panda or three toddling along after her while she went about her business.

Kitty's smile fell slightly. Gembound kids were independent, anyway -- it wasn't like the kid would even stick around, probably. Magic pushed out like usual, and Kitty couldn't help but wonder if one of these would end up becoming a night light. Magic met her, and she nudged it over to the rest. Kitty looked over at her un-baubled pile -- her den was becoming brighter by the cast, and she only had five normal stones left.

"Huh," she said. "Wonder where the time went. Seems like just a second ago I was looking at you guys in the other direction."

She took a long moment to select who twenty-one would be. It was a turning point -- after this, she'd just have four left to do, so she wanted to make sure the fifth to last one was the right one. She selected one after a while, effectively identical to the rest, and placed both of her paws over top of it. "I wonder if a chrysalis can be planted in a tree." Probably not, but she figured it wasn't worth the risk.

Kitty's ear flicked. Maybe I could find where I hatched and plant it there, she mused. I'll bet there's probably still moonstone lying around, unless red mice and golems got to it. Golems weren't too plentiful in Eridanus, but they weren't unheard of. Kitty concentrated on her magic, ears pricked forward. Her vision whited out for a moment, and her ears were left with a terrible ringing. Kitty swayed a little and stumbled, but when her eyes had finally cleared, her stone was unbaubled.

"Oh, don't be like that," she huffed. "Honestly, that is so rude."

"Maybe I should have picked a different stone," she huffed, taking it again anyway. "All I want out of you is a little glow, you dumb rock." Not that it was the rock's fault, probably. It was more likely her fault, or even random chance. She was still on her back, the rock balanced on her paws, as she worked it between them. "C'monnnnn, glow!"

Magicka met her, and she grinned. "There you go. See? Was that so hard? Now then, back to your brothers!" She rolled over and dropped the stone in the other pile before getting to her paws and looking over at the remaining four. "Ehh... one more, and then another break, I think." She sniffed and settled down before the bulk of the pile. "The real question is, which one."

Kitty closed her eyes before grabbing the next stone at random, pulling it closer to her. "I can't believe I'm almost done. I am going to sleep for a week after this." She stifled a laugh, and focused on the thulite between her paws. "You know, maybe if I'm feeling up to it, I'll try to look at the past of that chalcedony. I wonder what's in it. It might not even work well with me, you know?" A fish or something certainly would've been weird.

Luckily, magic met her readily, and she tossed the baubled stone in with the others before laying down to catch her breath. "Whew. That sure takes a lot out of you."

Kitty mulled for a moment over how long she'd been here as she reached out and selected her next stone. She'd been doing quite well -- only three failures, she noted, although two of them had been rather unpleasant ones. That was generally to be expected when she was doing this so many times, but her luck had held rather consistently. She was getting to be pretty good at this!

She selected her next thulite as carefully as she could with three somewhat identical stones left. She wondered idly where the Blacksmith had even gotten all these -- perhaps he'd made them with magic, or something? She inspected the bands of the pretty, pink stone for a moment and then let her magic wrap around and sink into it. A dimmer glow than she would have liked greeted her, and then the glowing stone greeted the rest of its cousins.

Now, she was down to two. They were going to look lovely, all strung up when she was finished -- an excellent showcase of her magic, too. Perhaps she'd even make a few strands -- the dimmer ones could be mood lighting, and the medium ones could hang from branches and such above her to make sure they lit the way while the brightest ones could stay inside her den to chase away the darkness.

But honestly, it was just good luck that she knew how to do this, being that she was afraid of the dark. Kitty didn't think that she'd ever consciously tried to learn how to do it -- she just always had been. Her magic tended to just come to her, although it wasn't as violent and unpredictable as Madhukar's was. And, to be honest, she couldn't actually do all that much anyway.

Kitty looked down at the thulite, but no glow came up to meet her. At least it wasn't the violent sort of failure, but she raised a suspicious eyebrow at it. "You two better not make me do this ten times just to get the two of you glowing, got it?"