The larimar was rather unassuming, as far as chrysali went.

Oh, sure, it was a beautiful bright blue. That did make it stand out among the ivory bones surrounding it. But it was covered with a thin layer of dust, and it was not large enough to hold one of the towering monsters running around the caves, and it was tucked away in the shadow of several piles of bones. As if when the snake inside had fallen sleep cycles ago, it had not wanted to be out in the open.

How it had ended up in Canis in the first place was a question, but not one the snake would know the answer to. Or one she would think about much at all. When the gemstone around her cracked and crumbled, depositing her into the world outside once more, all she did was hold very still and take in her surroundings. She did not think to question where this was, or how she had gotten here. The stimuli of air on her scales and the shallow water of a puddle touching her belly were a bit overwhelming, but not really clashing with any set expectations of what her surroundings should be like.

Canis was still unnerving, even without the knowledge that she had watched someone die here or that she should have woken in a home that looked very different from this. Some remnant of memory flickered, and told her that this many bones lying around could not be a good thing. Bones meant death, after all. But then, she was unharmed, so maybe it wasn't that dangerous?

A movement caught her attention, and the snake nearly jumped before recognizing that it was only from some kind of fuzzy white caterpillar crawling along the bones. She proceeded to eat this caterpillar, which soothed the tugging feeling in her stomach. She'd thought it was nerves, but maybe some of it had been hunger.

Emboldened by this success and the desire to leave the unpleasant coolness of the stagnant water and shadows behind, the snake slithered out from her shelter, only to be greeted with more dusty rock and bone. Her bright colors--orange, turquoise, and a streak of brilliant shimmering Spire-blue--stood out glaringly against the ivory and brown. Pausing uncertainly, she lifted her head and flicked out her tongue. This place was so big, and she did not know where she should go.

Weren't there others here? Others who moved and were alive and had bright colors like her, who weren't simple caterpillars crawling on ancient skeletons? She couldn't be the only one.

The snake slithered further. "Hello," she tried. "Hello?"

The dry and dusty air was the first thing that greeted Tourmaline in the room of
Canis. Carefully stepping over and around bones of the past, her direct register leads her past stalagmites and the few puddles that have survived the current heatwave.

It's quiet. Dead quiet.

...It's not funny.

Either way, Tourmaline presses on. She will learn these caves, and sooner seems better than later. And it's not long before something breaks the silence. Someone's speaking, she realizes, and she whips around to look for whoever it was.

First glance does not reveal the voice's identity, so she searches with her heart and with her magic, trying to identify the location it was coming from.

It takes Tourmaline a moment, but she finds her consciousness being pointed to the other side of a large pile of bones. She climbs up over it, looking down. "...Hello there. I didn't see you there," she tells the little... thing.

@Dewberry

The muted sounds of voices from beyond the clusters of bones drew him. But why? Curiosity, the painful desire to be around others--did it matter?

His approach was soft-footed, near silent, each paw a quiet scuff across the dusty stone. Violet eyes lifted, inspecting the strangers here.

He did not recognize them.

But then-... he doubted he would recognize near anyone in this era.

A soft huff threaded through his nostrils at this realization, and--resigned to it--the white tiger paced over to the pair. A serpent, he noted, a sort of sad and benign demeanor to him. Eyes travelled over the long-bodied form, and he reflected that were it larger, he might suspect its origins to be something other. And--the other creature? His gaze shifted to Tourmaline, and he pondered.

Feline, like him. Smaller, of course.

He took a breath, and his chin lifted, his muscled body coming to a stop. There was a regal air to him, the gem in his forehead gleaming like a crown--despite the quiet humility, the sadness that clung to him like a shroud. "Excuse me," he rumbled, softly. "But-... Do you mind company?" he asked them both, eyes shifting between them.

@Dewberry as requested!

A plain feline greeted her, the green-pink crystal jutting from her neck the only splash of color on her. Though the serpent was not smaller than the Pallas's cat when it came to length, she disliked having to look up at anyone, and she slithered up a larger pile of bones opposite the cat's before she spoke again.

'I didn't see you there.' Well- "Now you have," the snake replied, the barest hint of humor slipping into her voice. And she'd be difficult to lose sight of again, given the brilliant color of her scales. "Who are you? Do you live here?" The Pallas's cat's colors certainly matched those of the rock and bones around her.

And--so did the colors of another cat, this one larger and striped but still monochrome, apart from his eyes and the shining gem at his brow. Half-distractedly, the snake wondered if she really was the oddball here--once might have been a coincidence, but two sparked doubt in her. Why did her colors, orange and turquoise and a stripe of End's Sky (though she didn't know it by that name), differ so much from theirs? Was it because she somehow didn't belong here like they did? And if that was the case, was there a place for her elsewhere, or was this room of bones the entire world? She felt an unexpected twinge of emotion at the thought. There should be more color in the world.

Mostly, though, she was mesmerized by the tiger's gem.

"No," she replied absently to his question, her eyes still stuck to his forehead. Its smooth surface gleamed; its shimmering pink-purple color instilled new wonder in her heart. Her mind flashed back to the larimar shards she'd left behind, and she wondered if the tiger had more of his gem, too--because she'd been seized with a sudden desire to have this gem, it was so beautiful, and she didn't think he'd react kindly if she attempted to pluck it from his forehead.

She hadn't gone far from the place where she emerged, and the larimar laying in the shadows was still within sight. Impulsively, she tugged on a shard with her magic and brought it sailing over. "Is there more of your gem?" Despite her fascination, her voice was as even and smooth, like cool water, as it had been when she greeted Tourmaline. Perhaps she simply did not have a wide range of expression in either voice or facial expressions. "I can trade," she added, by way of explanation.

She'd stopped staring at the tiger's gem in order to use her magic, and now that she looked back at the two felines, she noted a startling resemblance--from her point of view, at least. Both were pale, both were some kind of cat, and both had a contrasting colorful gem. "... are you related?" she asked doubtfully, looking at one and then the other.

@Tourmaline

Golden eyes watch as Dewberry crawls up to her. "I suppose so," she laughs, after the snake in front of her points out the obvious. "My name is Tourmaline. I was exploring. I usually spend more of my time in Polaris or Eridanus," is her answer.

Tourmaline should've expected someone else would come up to the two of them - she'd barely sensed something else, but had ignored it since she was specifically looking for someone in particular. Either way, she had no intent of turning someone away. "Stay as long as you like. I don't mind," she smiles, looking up at him.

She chuckles a little at the snake asking to trade gems, but she also understands completely. They're so pretty, and they'd be wonderful to make a den more of a home.

She should make a den.

Dewberry's question snaps her out of her reverie. Looking between the two of them, she puzzles over it. "No, I don't think so... I haven't met them before."

@Game Master Dark

The request puzzled him, for a moment--he did not understand the question right away--and as he peered at Dewberry, mulling it over, Tourmaline spoke.

The great tiger king did not know if the introductions had been meant to include him, but he was polite, and dipped his large head to each of them. "Thank you," he rumbled softly. "I am Teosar." A faint grief still clung to him, kept him sorrowfully apart and quiet, but belatedly he realized the nature of the serpent's request. For a moment he felt a faint possessiveness, but--what did it matter? Yes, the stone had been his, but all that he had really cared about was gone.

Teosar let go of the idea.

"There is more... yes. A small pool of water, threaded back through the tunnels here." He gave a light nod to the patchwork maze of bones behind him. It might take some exploring, but his shattered chrysalis still lay beneath the shallow pond. And the collapsed bones of his guardian-...

He exhaled softly.

"I also do not think we are related. But I am sure you are... a formidable warrior," he offered Tourmaline, with a nod. Surely that was still a compliment, in this era-?

@Dewberry