Maximus was silent for a moment. Then they wiped their eyes and stood up, the slightest bit wobbly for just a moment.

”Thank you. I'm... relieved, honestly. If they're in chrysalis, they're alive, right? And they can't be harmed in there, so I believe it's for the best. Again, thank you,” they whispered, turning around to touch the stone.

After a moment's hesitation, they patted it, unsure if it could even feel such a gesture, but they did so anyway. Perhaps it was the thought that counted.

”I'll be back tomorrow,” they said, rubbing their eyes with one giant hand. ”I hope you aren't too lonely. Perhaps tomorrow I shall wish for you a friend, though that needn't be necessary, I think. If you so please, I would easily be your friend.”

Max smiled and turned to leave, their hooves clicking on the stone. They would return the next day for their next wish.

"Oi, what's going on here?"

There was a crowd in Polaris today. Zookeeper could see it from his perch on the rocks, where he stayed until his distant dream of a zoo was fulfilled. Birds, dragons, and other creatures of myriad descriptions all crowded around a single spot. Well, he couldn't just stay here and watch, he had to go and see what was so interesting!

"Pardon me-- coming through-- oh my!" After squeezing his way towards the front, Zookeeper could finally see the object of concern: a medium-sized crystal of shifting colors. There was a strange Gembounds would put their paws (or claws, or hands) on it, and something would suddenly happen. He watched with great interest as the crowd got their wishes. What would he wish for...?

Soon it was his turn. The large panther padded to the kaleidoscopic stone and laid his paw on it. He thought hard for a second, and then: I wish for.... okay wait I didn't actually think that hard hold on. Hmmm. I wish for assistance in building my dream zoo! Wait, do you-- rock, erm-- know what a zoo is? It's a big place where animals, the not-sentient kind, go but regardless, I need help to build mine. Could you give me some help with... hmm, construction maybe? Like, I would greatly appreciate help in creating walls like the ones you see in Orion, but stronger and capable of holding in animals! Maybe something transparent, too, so you can see inside the enclosure at the creatures within? That would be so, so appreciated, little-strange-stone-handing-things-out!

He then flashed his most charming Aussie smile. At a rock.

Pelly hadn't been doing too much out of the ordinary these days. Run around, cause a mote of mischief, eat a banana, eat another banana, keep eating bananas forever because even though they had the impulse to chase live prey sometimes that was just part of their 'genetics' and said nothing about them as a person and they had practiced willpower and lots of ways to handle the urge except perhaps not enough maybe more would be fun maybe they should find more—

It was a pleasant kind of monotony, one they sort of shared with their family. It was pleasant, but for Pelly, also sort of guilty for a weird stupid reason that shouldn't matter at all but it did because feelings matter, even if they are silly feelings. Dreams. So many dreams. Pelly just couldn't quit it with the dreams — plenty lucid, plenty not, one almost every night, some of them felt directed and some of them felt completely abstract, but Pelly felt plagued! By all!! The dreams!!!

Hence the morning routine. Get up, dunk head in water to forget what you just saw, eat banana, eat banana, go for a run, think about carrots nothing at all as best you can, run around Polaris because it feels nice. Maybe Polaris was the problem — this place was so frantic, packed with energy, that it might be sending Pelly's brain into overdrive. Maybe it was the problem in the past — who could say? Today, however, it might prove to be... a solution.

The Wishing Stone beckoned, and Pelly had no trouble with answering calls, unlike most heroes on many journeys. When they inevitably came to investigate, they came close enough to touch the stone with the tip of their nose, where their gemstone sat — in fact, they did touch the stone with the tip of their nose where their gemstone sat. And what to wish for, since apparently it felt like that's what they were meant to do? It didn't even feel hard. 'Hi. Um... I'd like to know what my dreams mean if that's possible, i have a lot of them and they get kind of wild — never really sure what to do about it since i don't know what they mean, you know? but it always feels like they mean something and i'm just sitting here clueless, idle and all; not sure if i'm a fan of the sensation. Thanks for the help — or, just, uh, thanks for listening.'

A little asking around and they simply couldn't leave Polaris before this was done, no matter how long the line was.

A stone that granted wishes! Yellow knew immediately what theirs was. In theory, their own life was as happy as could be with the marvelous little fungus that connected them to Mother. They had "chores", so they would never feel purposeless, and a family and a grand home under the glacier they could visit whenever they wanted! But even if they chose to stay among the towering ferns of Eridanus or explore the rest of the caves, they would never be left alone. They would always be safe. Mother and her fungus made sure of that.

But there was someone they wanted to share it with. Someone who had loved them and cared for them just like Mother did now, and from whom they'd been separated for so many cycles. With Mother's help, that would never happen again. They could be safe and happy together, one big family...

There was just one step in the equation they still hadn't been able to complete, and whatever higher power that was watching over them all knew that when they heard of the wishing stone, that hope and desire flared up to burn more brightly than ever before.

They felt like leaping up and rocketing off the cave walls with excitement. Their blood might as well be the Spire for how much it felt like it was rushing and crackling with anticipation. I want my brother, they thought, weaving their fingers together and laying them on the wishing stone with an unshakeable determination—and so, so much gratitude and hope. If the wishing stone could grant them this—

They imagined an image of a large black feline. A smooth, glossy pelt; kind golden eyes, a confident voice and powerful magic; a deep-red ruby that gleamed from their shoulder. The contours of the face were indistinct and likely different from Sebastian's actual features, but that was simply a product of their time apart. What was certain was that Yellow had always loved their brother wholly and unconditionally, even through that time.

—then their life really would be complete.

Lass had been quite busy these days, hanging on the shoulders of her new best friend Banshy and into the home of a little fox, away from her dragon family, but as far as she knew, she hadn't heard from them in... years. its okay though.

she had heard of the wishing rock though!! and she definitely wanted to make a wish!!

she flew towards the song, small as she was, and landed right atop the wishing stone, smiling brightly.

"Hello wishing stone!!! i'm Lass! pleasure to meet you!!!" she greeted. "Could i have something shiny? OOH, maybe a magic shiny, that'd be cool! something i can tinker with maybe? a magic tinkering thing! i like making things, maybe something that would help?? thank you!!!"

she waited patiently, looking idly at the pile of flowers by the rock that, supposedly, Bebby had left.

The soft chime of recognition was met with Madhukar's own wide-eyed interest, a flick of her ear, a twitch of her tail. She awaited, ready to be patient, but strangely not ready to be disappointed. And what finally did appear — well, when she figured out how to open it, when she sifted around the soft, colorful, and lovely fabrics, her expression... completely changed. She felt the opposite of tense, the opposite of furrowed — she felt rather light-footed actually, and her eyes shone with a sort of wonder for the first time in a very long time. She had no idea how to put these things on, but holding them up and admiring them, becoming practically enchanted by them, she cultivated the desire to figure it out. Before she left with her little case, Madhukar looked for, perhaps, an abnormally long amount of time at the stone... and then some rumbling noise started coming out of her throat, very croaky and rickety and quiet. Maybe nobody would hear, maybe the stone wouldn't either since it had no ears. Madhukar didn't say another word as she left.

~*~

She did not return immediately. When she did, she came encumbered by something: a large mound of dirt piled in her arms like unfolded laundry, dropping clods and specks in one awfully messy trail. It wasn't just dirt though, it was soil; full of water and nutrients, and in this particular case, roots. Plants. A sparse few wildflowers from Pegasus, some in full bloom and some still shut in their buds. Madhukar had, presumably, grown these herself. Carrying it without a pot or locomotive or anything looked and proved very difficult, but the feline was dead set on the task. She let down her dirt mound by the stone and spread it around the stone's base carefully, so as not to kill any of the wildflowers immediately. They were all sorts of colors, most likely hand-picked, and most certainly hand-delivered. Madhukar didn't want to make the stone hard to reach, so she didn't make the radius of this ring too wide, and she left one or two "holes" in the ring so anyone could still just walk through. For her final act, Madhukar focused on one of the buds and channeled magic into it, attempting to make it bloom magnificently. Her gratitude must have come through in magic — the resulting blossom looked like an ode to life itself.

I don't know if you're alive, and I don't know how long these will be alive either. But... maybe you'll enjoy the colors, or the company, or... something. Kindness begets kindness, it seems. Wish I knew more about them... and especially the bugs that like them. I like... the bugs and the colors. This had not been her initial idea for another wish, but working on this project of sorts had led her to thinking more about how she had had this desire for so long and yet she had never once acted on it outside of trial and error. She didn't really know how to even begin. But she... trusted that this, whoever or whatever this was, could help maybe possibly hopefully.

Kaimana had decided against going to the Collector. For now. And maybe that was for the best. She had done the work of stowing away her items and now she was just, well, a little restless with a little bit of guilt. She had to get these stones revived, she felt responsible for this now, especially after so much promising to herself, but she just could not find a non-risky way to transport them! She was concerned about approaching the Collector, less because he had asked for something she couldn't trade once and more because she was uncertain of how fast she could provide whatever he might need in exchange. Her request would be large! Kaimana really just wished she had more options. A monopoly was never a good or fair thing, after all. However, in the act of searching and waiting, she had likely taken as long to not trade with the Collector as she might have taken to actually trade with the Collector. To ease (and distract) herself, Kaimana had taken to studying frequently to studying in Cepheus. Turns out, many books were actually in English, and Astraea's initial lesson had been enough to get the ever-tenacious Kaimana started on her own.

It's amazing how far you can run to get away from a dilemma you've opted out of solving.

She'd get back to it! He would. Most certainly he would, this was... yet another promise. Once he had the energy for it! The specific motivational energy that empowered his enthusiasms. Maybe this was less enticing because you couldn't actually trade or barter children very conscionably. Maybe Polaris could energize her.

Thus, Kaimana was here, and while the potent energy of Polaris wasn't helping, the almost magnetic energy of the Wishing Stone... Kaimana slunk over to it, careful in his gait but not in a way that suggested hesitation. Visibly intrigued and already smiling wider and wider, Kaimana marveled at the glimmering stone for a moment, absorbing the intuitive feeling that this could grant her wish. Having formulated the request in his mind, Kaimana placed a paw every so softly on the stone and closed his eyes. 'Hello, stone. I am Kaimana, and I have had a rather extraneous plight that has long overstayed its welcome. I have many objects and gemstones I like to stow away for the sake of eventual trade and adoption, but I have nowhere to keep them and no way to move them. My den is so crowded, I can't even fit in it anymore. I've been avoiding the issue altogether for far too long — looking at many books in Cepheus, ones with pictures and words — and I have learned of a thing known as... a boat? A B-O-A-T. The pictures that accompany these things are always so beautiful to me, although it may just be that I am drawn to the depictions of open water... Regardless, I would like to acquire one somehow, either by my own creation or... I'm not sure. It's a large request, and I'm not sure what I would be able to do in return, but that is my honest wish and the best way I can think to solve my problem.' Perhaps they could work something out. Or perhaps Kaimana could simply accept that payback was probably out of the realm of possibility with things like wishes, since that's kind of the point of wishes. Paying it forward was probably better — well, we'll see what happens.

Khavur didn't know where they were going. Weren't really all that sure of why they were going either. What they did know was that a group of beautiful birds with lovely songs had flocked to him the other day and they hadn't left until they'd flown away. And it made Khavur so... it didn't know. It didn't understand, and that's always the killing bite. But walking away wasn't going to help them understand what had happened, or why, or anything about those birds, or where they came from, or why they came, so why was he walking? Why was he walking away—?

The stone caught Khavur's attention. Something about color these days felt like what pain feels like when he finally gets to feel pain. Deeper than skin. This was getting bad. The colors were blindingly sweet and reminiscent of Khavur's past somehow, in a way he refused to articulate, and this was getting bad. He liked the birds. He missed them.

So he reached out and touched, and the wish escaped him. 'I want the birds to stay.' And in truth, there were so many other things he wished for, there were so many other things to do to get what he needed, what he had wanted to attain for so many cycles, for so many fateful days. So then why not make it easier and wish for any of those? Perhaps this might help: of those things he wished for, the only one he felt was out of reach was, well...

The wishing stone wouldn't be without the glorious presence of Genevive for long, and she would moveforth once again, a dip of her head in gratitude, to ask for another wish.

"hello again, wishing stone, it is lovely to see you again. i quite enjoyed the gift you gave me last time, people were positively dazzled by my wonderful eyes. though.. of course, if you would grant me another wish?" she asked, trying to come across as appreciative, although she was greedy as she was vain, though not quite a bad thing here.

"I love my eyes, but my body needs new beaty aswell. flowers wilt in my mane and i do not have the means to craft clothing or accessories, but it seems, from what you gave Bebby atleast, that YOU do. she observed.

"i request an article of clothing of some kind. it doesn't have to be magical, but i would like it to be beautiful, if you can muster another gift for me? something that sparkles, something that shimmers, that would be appropriate, yes? if you could do that, you'd have my utmost thanks" she requested, waiting once more, patiently, for the rock's reply.


"Speech." Thoughts.

Bebby, of course, would return with flowers. no rocks this time, they hurt her teeth to carry, but she would bring flowers once more.

"hi rock!! its me again!!" she said, dropping the flowers into the growing pile of them. "i loved the bracelets and stuff you gave me, look, they fit me!" she exclaimed, holding out her paws and shaking them excitedly, the assortment of bracelets clicking joyfully.

"i figured i'd come back and ask for something for my friend Nico, if thats ok? he's asleep and forgraves won't let him travel by himself yet, but he asked me to come get something for him!" she asked, before continuing to talk.

"Nico thinks he's a vampire, said he's like "dracula" or something. i dont know who that is, but he says he's a cool vampire, and nico really wants to be one. do you have something, like something magical, that i could give him to make his vampire dreams come true? i mean, not literally, i don't think thats possible, but something that does something cool that he could use or wear to like, keep up the vampire VIBES, if you get what im saying. if that's not too much trouble!"

once again, she would wait patiently for a reply, smiling.

speech
thoughts