Approximately a week ago a tiny stormy blue stone cracked open to reveal a sunny yellow chick. And Gemini had never known silence since.

Okay, an exaggeration, but not by much. For someone who barely knew how to talk he really didn't shut up. Even when his mouth was shut, oftentimes a magical crystalline song rung out from him, reverberating against the surrounding crystals in a ghostly echo. The only thing that silenced this song was the odd bat or rat that got a little too curious about it's source. Survival instincts outweighed musical affinity, apparently.

Gemini wasn't exactly the most habitable cave- nothing like Pegasus, for example- but he made it work. Large wormy green bugs skittered on the walls- mostly out of reach, but a great snack if one got within reach. And hardy little plants and shrubs grew among clumps of crystals and atop geodes. Ok, those were a little bit less tasty, but it made the hunger stop!

This day he happened to be looking for one of the green wormy bugs- or, failing that, one of the less-tasty plants. He wandered close to the waterfall in his search, and a strange noise lured him into a crystalline alcove.

In all of his admittedly short existence, this was the strangest thing he had ever seen.

It was a swirly whirly... thing. Not very big in the grand scheme of things, but pretty big to the little bird. And it was bright! Nearly as bright as the little glowing orbs that hung near the ceiling. And naturally, as one who had never been taught not to mess with mysterious portals, he wanted to touch it. Scrunching his face up with determination and concentration, he'd jump up into the air, wings flapping wildly in a futile attempt to stay airborn as his outstretched talons reached towards the portal.

"Another piece of junk...?" Feringar grumbled to himself, turning a strange contraption over in his hands. It was like a clamshell, opening to reveal a mirror on one inside cover and a worn-down pad on the other. It didn't seem like it was used often, especially since he had fished it out from a pile of other miscellaneous knickknacks that had no apparent use. Hesitantly, his eyes slid up to search for the witch from the back of the carriage over piles of goods—some he would not call goods—and then flicked down to the item in his hands. It was interesting because he did not often look at himself, so he spent a moment turning his chin left and right, taking in the angle of his cheeks and the sunken beds that his eyes sat in. Ugh. What a miserable looking man.

He touched a finger to the pad and wondered what once went there, but then the mirror flashed an image and he nearly dropped the tiny thing. Was that... his family? He pulled the clam up to his face and squinted into it, searching the dirtied edges of the mirror for the faces it had shown him moments ago; but they were gone. Feringar slammed the thing shut with a click and thrust open the jewelry box to dispose of it. Vile. A mirror of tricks! Why would she have such a thing? Anger boiled in him fueled by years of hatred, fear, and sadness.

The mirror-clam was sucked into the rift and he clapped his hands together in a way to rid them of dust.

But of course Ezra had come waddling around the cart, her eyes wide, hands pulled up to her chest where her fingers danced about like the crawling legs of a spider.

"Was that my compact?" she asked, fidgeting her way toward the cart and plucking through the items Feringar had pulled out.

"A what?"

"My compact! My compact memory mirror!!" she exclaimed, growing frantic as she tossed things aside. "Ooooh, you didn't! You didn't send it away, did you? Feringar!"

"Compact memory... I did send it away, it was vile. Showed me tricks!" he retorted, slamming a fist against the cart, rattling all the things within it and spooking the horse into a chorus of neighs.

Ezra had been frozen in place, barely even breathing. She had never seen him so visibly upset, she realized.

"What did it show you?" she asked as she carefully took the jewelry box into her hands, tinkering with its little screws and magical points of contact.

He looked up to her with narrowed eyes, seething; she almost thought he hissed at her, but he was tempering his breaths carefully, letting an inhale draw through a clenched jaw.

"A secret then," she concluded, turning back to her task and deciding then she would not look at him again until he was done... doing whatever that was. Pouting? No, much too angry. He left to distance himself and she respected that space.

"Ah-hah—aaaAAAH!" Ezra yelped, dropping the jewelry box after a pop of sparks bit at her hand. Feringar came hurrying back, sword drawn to the sense of danger; though he was upset still, he would not leave her to fend for herself, as he had promised long ago—and likewise, as had she. He did not want to approach the jumping box that sparked with all bits of glowing color, like tiny little fireworks.

"What did you do?" he asked her over the arm that was lifted to guard his face.

"I want it back! My mirror!" she explained, carefully crouching to pick through the magic snapping wildly at the air. And then out came an object—visibly and most notably not her mirror.

Sat in her hands was a tiny creature, naked and bald and...

"A baby," she whispered as the magic died down and the jewelry box sat silent once again.

"Excuse me, a what?" Feringar sputtered, trying to look through the cage of her fingers at the tiny creature she held.

"A baby bird!" she cooed delightfully, holding it up into the sky—it eclipsed her view of the sun and the planet, and though it was too young to fly, she wooshed it slowly through the air as if it were. "Are you living in my house, you stinky little bugger?" she laughed, though she was not unaware of its magical inclination. Ezra felt its magic tingling like electricity on her fingertips, but she kept this particular detail to herself so that Feringar would not do anything rash. Best to put it back, though; if it had been born in the valley then it should stay there like the rest of them, safe and sound as long as it could last.

"I want to see," he said gently, approaching her carefully as she held it up for him to see. Oh, it was uglier than he had expected, but he supposed maybe all great things started small. "So you have birds living in your house?"

"Ugh! You and the negatives; he'll probably grow up and have a much nicer voice than you, you brute," she teased, crouching so that she could open the jewelry box again. "Okay, back you go, little friend," Ezra said warmly, letting the pull of the rift find the bird through her fingers and suck him back in.

Feringar looked absolutely disgusted but chose not to say anything more about the various nests that were likely waiting for her when she got home.

"Sorry about the mirror," he mumbled finally.

She gave him a small smile and said, "It's okay."

Ezra knew it only showed someone their most cherished memories, so as much as she was curious about what he saw, she chose not to pry.

@Ariah visits the surface briefly and is returned to the cave (with no harm done)! Upon landing back in Gemini, he finds himself beside the Memory Mirror which will show him his memory of the sky for as long as he holds a foot on the pad, but only Ariah can see this image. It is about 2.5 inches in diameter and made of a frosted, black metallic material with a gold etching; though the rune means nothing to Ariah, it reads: Forever.

The swirly whirly thingy began to crack and pop like hot oil, drawing a panicked cheep from Ariah. He stopped falling for a moment and then started reverse falling getting sucked into the pretty rift. For a moment he just sat, completely dazed and confused by what just happened.

And once he acclimated a little more... he honestly only got even more confused. The titanic creature which held him so gently. The conversation that swirled above his head, which he barely payed attention to. Instead his wide eyes took in everything surrounding him. The strange structure surrounding him. The faces of the creatures looming above him. He peeped and chirped as he was 'flown,' and when he was lifted up face the sky he fell silent.

With all it's reflective crystal mirrors Gemini could seem infinite, but this really WAS infinite. The blue ceiling stretched up infinitely high, and the room was so big he couldn't even catch sight of the walls. It was with quiet awe he took in it all, only chirping a quiet goodbye as the rift sucked him back home.

It was quite unceremonious when he was plopped haphazardly back on the stone floor of Gemini. He sat there like a discarded chicken nugget for quite a while, before pulling himself up to his feet. He quickly took note of the strange new object that was now there, hopping over and onto the worn metal pad, only to hop back in surprise as the glass briefly lit up with a very familiar scene. He'd creep back over to it, placing a talon onto the pad, and watching with delight as the mirror reflected the endless sky he'd been so entranced by.

He still had it. The sky. The above-place he'd been sent through by the rift.

It took a while, given the object was about as big as he was, but he managed to push it into a safe little nook. He didn't want anyone stealing it. Even such a little child knew the value of such an object.

It was his own little piece of the sky, after all.

Exit Thread!