Encased in auburn stone was a gembound, ignorant to a world outside her own small cocoon. Then, subjected to circumstance, the stone cracked, and with a creaking groan, deposited a damp infant onto the floor. A soft cry echoed through the cavern, muffled by the roar of the waterfall. This dark, cold place was no a friend to her, at least, it did not seem to be. In her home, in the husk she'd so tenderly loved, there was warmth and stability. There was none of that here. Crying out again, the baby shivered, confused and perturbed. Why had this happened? What was she going to do now? Turning her head, she looked back at her stone. Its beautiful surface was broken and jagged now. The single white line running through it interrupted. "W-w-whh-whhyyyyy?"

Delphine was as much a creature of habit as she was of randomness. Waffling between an inclination for wanderlust and rituals born of love and comfort, the mare took pleasure in the polarities that existed in her life. It lent perspective and dichotomy that — when measured, weighed and balanced — afforded an insight and appreciation that she was once without. Much of it could have been attributed to the consistent presence that'd been introduced to her; a corporeal figure who was very much her counterpart yet in all else, they were nothing alike. Through him, she had found the resolution in her to quell her vices. Through him, she learned that not everyone would leave. None of this implied that she thought or felt any less toward her friends, and those who staked claim to familial bonds but this newfound bond she'd forged was exactly what she'd been seeking since the day she was separated from everyone in Polaris to the very moment she witnessed the colt, Meredith, fall from his obsidian womb.

The miracle of birth was that with it came new possibilities. Each and every time the caverns shuddered with a pulse of new life, she could feel her own energy surge. What came next was instincts; a two-step process that involved Delphine switching to her second sight and following the magic where it culminated to its breaking point. So it was that she would find herself in Pisces again, drawn to the water oasis where a child lay, collecting at her shell as if attempting to piece together the shattered remnants of the gem. Delphine stepped forward with a low nicker, gentle in her approach and softer yet in voice. "Hello little one." With many before her, she'd been more brazen in touch but she hesitated here where insecurity curled within the newborn who bore as much similarities as she did differences to her. A chimera seeking to rewrap herself in what could not be repaired. "It's okay, you're safe here." She cooed, taking another tentative step forward. "My name is Delphine. Do you know your name?"

( @Meredith @Tillie )

OOC: Kayla, feel free to jump in whenever with Mer <3 The okapi's ears swiveled, catching the faintest traces of a sound. Eyes wide, she turned her head to follow it and was met with the presence of another. Tillie flinched, rolling back in an attempt to get away from the black, shadowy mass. "N-nnooooo! N-no!" Then, the shadow spoke. Tillie twitched her nose. The sound of her voice, the gentleness, the care -- hearing that was like being back in her home. She huffed gently, extending her neck towards the stranger, eyeing her warily. "S-safe. Safe, no. Safe there." She said, looking back at her gem. Seeing it there made an acute, wrenching sorrow coil in her heart and she put her head down, her chin resting on the rough cave floor. "My name is Delphine. Do you know your name?" She looked up without moving her head. Sniffing, she sighed her name out. "Tillie."

There were not many instances when she'd been met with fear but the few that came to mind wrought smiles and laughter more than it did actual concern. She thought on Mojag, the small bird who'd promptly slammed his face into all surfaces of his shell before he was able to collect himself. Then she was here, peering down into the fragmented confines of the newborn's gem and the way in which she clung to it. "Don't cry." Delphine begged, uncertain of what it was she could say or do to ameliorate the situation as it was one that she did not encounter enough to know the necessary steps. It hadn't helped that the child believed so firmly in the safety of her broken home. What had the mare to offer in the ways of security?

Thinking on Baratheon, Delphine found herself lowering to the ground so to make herself smaller in the eyes of the strange creature. Then her head lowered, emulating her gesture but offering still distance. "Tillie." She repeated, testing the name along her tongue before she smiled. "It's a lovely name, Tillie. Perhaps I could call you Lili? You can call me Phin or Phina or Del or whatever you'd like." It was an exchange, not particularly thought out in its end-game purpose but she did hope it would afford some amount of trust on the child's part toward her.

( @Meredith @Tillie )

"Don't cry." It was a lofty, ignorable command. Still damp from her emergence, she shivered, lifting her gaze to look behind the shadow creature, out into the room beyond. The view, assaulting in its grander, required more than a moment to take in. Slate gray rock separated the wall into pieces, water falling from a vertical series of steps. The roar from the waterfall in the center soon became a forgettable part of the environment, like a sound or a presence that remained out of mind unless it became absent. The shadow repeated her name, gently tugging her attention back to their conversation. "P-ph-phina." She repeated, picking her favorite of the three. "Why I here? Why this happen?"

Delphine simpered upon hearing her name escape the child's lips. How lovely and endearing it was. Though the warmth that flickered in her heart remained, Tillie's question would soon inspire an old revolution of thoughts that often perpetuated her mind: why were they here? Her eyes glazed over in thought, hesitant to give perspective where there was only uncertainty. "I suppose..." She began and stopped not soon after.

Finally her gaze flickered to that of the newborn and an apologetic smile found its way upon her visage. "To be honest, Tillie. I'm not too sure." Honesty was the best policy and in this case, it was all that she had to offer in a way of answers. "I do know though that we are all born from unique gems, see mine?" She flashed her still growing jadeite horns to the child with a small tilt of her head. "You have one too, it's a part of who you are and I think it's where our life force comes from." She knew she was digressing and distracting herself with irrelevant thoughts but it seemed imperative that Tillie be informed that a part of her gem would always follow her, if only to lend a sense of security. "I also know what it feels like to see this place for the first time, it's terrifying and different but it's also beautiful." Her head lifted and her muzzle swept the wide expanse of Pisces. "See? This is Pisces. There's mostly water here but in other places, there are grass, mazes, stars, everything."

She turned to the child once more and this time beamed with confidence. "Why don't you try standing?"

( @Meredith @Tillie )

Though the shadow creature seemed to have knowledge of this world, her wisdom was not one that could help with a newborn's existential crisis. Tillie sniffed, displeased, though she could not blame the stranger for her ignorance when she knew nothing herself. "I do know though that we are all born from unique gems, see mine?" She turned back to her gem, gazing with widened eyes. To know that a piece of her home would always be with her was a comfort. "Where my gem? Is it there too?" She asked, trying to look on top of her head to see them. The shadow's soft, lilting voice explained where they were, and Tillie followed her gaze. "Is big. Is loud. Is cold. No like." She surmised, twitching her nose disapprovingly. "Why don't you try standing?" The infant blinked. What a preposterous idea. With a small, determined shake of her head, Tillie declined. Tucking her legs further beneath her.

The disappointment was palpable along the newborn's features and it summoned a pang of frustration unto her being. It had never occurred to her the affect helplessness could have on her psyche but it certainly wrought no joy from Delphine as her head dropped a millimeter with the weight of her failure. The emotion itself would linger but it'd been pushed to the backdrop when the child further inquired where her own gem was. Her attention refocused and the adolescent gave her a quick once-over.

With a small laugh, Delphine shook her head. "No, I don't think it is." She offered with a smile. There was a glint in the corner of her eye urging her gaze to flicker downward to where the very same hue of the gem that'd ruptured formed itself along the child's one hoof. "Look, there it is!" Calling the newborn's attention to the crimson sheen. "That's where your gem is." She nodded affirmatively, almost proud that she'd partially compensated her earlier loss with this newfound discovery.

Though the victory would be short-lived upon receiving the rejection to make an attempt at standing. Delphine felt a sliver of discouragement creep along her back and shoulders. "Well how about this... If you stand, I'll take you to somewhere that's smaller, quieter and warmer? I think you'll like it much more there." It was bribery but she could never have known, not when her intentions were very simply to aid the child in her first few steps in this world.

( @Meredith @Tillie )

Tillie blinked at the shadow's sudden exclamation and followed her gaze down to see her gem imbedded in the surface of her hoof -- no, it was her hoof. The child's ears flattened against her head. Why was her gem some place it could be so easily broken? Was it simply destined to shatter as her other one had? The shadow urged her to stand again, but Tillie shook her head more fervently this time. "My gem! No break my gem!" She craved what Delphine promised, but the task that lay before her seemed insurmountable, and surely one that would bring her more pain than staying exactly where she was. "No. No, I stay."

There were many times in which Delphine was met with rejection, fear even but never so consistently and not quite like this. The frequency of the word 'no' found its way beneath her flesh, worming and writhing in a way that only fed the rising frustration. Yet the part about the situation that bothered her most was not that the child was stubborn (which she was) but that her own impatience was unfounded. There was no way in which she could justify her desire to simply urge the newborn to stand or to force her into action but it was there, a perpetual presence that knitted itself within her every thought and threatening to surface the moment she deigned to let her guard down.

She would not be beat.

With another reassuring smile, Delphine mauled over the many options presented before her and came upon one that she thought they would both accept. "Well, how about this... You can walk around like this so that your gem doesn't break!" Lifting her one foreleg up, the young mare gradually began to hobble about. In truth, she was not entirely confident in her sense of balance but given the situation, compromise was inevitable. So it was, she took slow and steady steps on three-legs, hobbling back and forth to demonstrate a middle-ground that she could only hope that the child would accept. "I'll even help you up and act as a crutch, what do you think?" She offered while hobbling back toward Tillie, hopeful and optimistic.