Ember returned home in silence, bar the leathery flaps of his wings as he glided in. He landed, claws tapping stone, and shuffled and shouldered his way back into his little home among the ruins nearest the Throne. Pride was somewhere nearby, but he wasn't going looking for him, just now--no; this was private. He wasn't even going to talk to Sir Hammersly first (his enchanted hammer).

He curled into the back of his home, wings raising and mantling as though to shelter the precious thing he still held in one clutched, clawed hand: the smooth orb of Moonstone.

Ember's eyes, glowing like flame, shifted to and fro as he studied it. Outwardly, he looked calm, even thoughtful. Inwardly-... Inwardly, he was terrified. Worried. Excited, even, but-... mostly afraid.

He'd kept this stone so desperately safe ever since he'd found it while rooting around the ruins for loot. He'd feared trying to revive it, feared failing and breaking it forever, but now the magic of the Wishing Stone had supposedly ensured he would succeed. But what if he didn't? That worry kept flaring up in him. Not only that, but-... He sure as hell wasn't ready to be a parent. He still thought of himself, really, as a kid--a very big kid--still shy, and learning, and growing. ...In a way.

But the stone deserved to live, and that's what was important. It still had life. He couldn't just leave it to flicker out and eventually die--if it was alive, he'd give it the chance to be a person, again.

Carefully, Ember set the Moonstone down, and took a breath, wings tensing overhead. His clawed hands cradled the stone where it sat on the rock, and he concentrated, remembering everything his parents had told him about giving life.

He felt his magic faltering. Felt it failing, failing to take, to revive the stone, and for a moment panic rose in him--but then something else came. The magic the Wishing Stone had settled, latent, in the Moonstone flared to meet his own--drew it in, strengthened it, drew it down, infusing the Moonstone with his magic and its own.

Ember shivered at the feeling, his eyes widening, and he let out his breath in a sharp exhale; he pulled away, and stared as the gem flared soft white... then faded again, its luster beginning already to spread and merge into the rock below.

"I'll protect you," he whispered, impulsively, and did his best to blink back sudden tears.

image credits: [x] [x] [x]

The revived Moonstone once belonged to a three-way hybrid of Eurasian Eagle Owl, King Vulture, and Jewel Scarab beetle.

This creature weighed very little, being only the size of an older kitten. Its legs were long, like a vulture's but with the toe configuration of an owl--and its toes were segmented and jagged, like a beetle's. These lower legs, along with a shell and wing-covers on the upper body, were iridescent golden carapace material.

The beetle-like head was colored like the vulture ancestor's, in bright splashes of orange and violet. Ear-tufts, along with most of the feathering on the body, were pale, though the wings and tail were tipped in black, and the chest was speckled black.

stone rolled and illustrated by navy!