As was common in the cave, many crystals lay strewn about in jagged clusters. One such crystal was glassy and colorless with lines of black woven inside in crisscross patterns, the shadow of a body barely visible through them. Inside, the creature stirred with greater consciousness. Such a suffocating existence, to be grown inside a shell with no room to wriggle and squirm. Each attempt at movement was met with tight restriction and stubborn resistance from the crystal walls. Deterred for the time being, the creature stilled for quite some time. Then, the persistent coolness it had known for so long began to change. The heat spread slowly from the outside of the crystal inward, eventually worming under skin and flesh to warm the pulsing blood. Curiosity swelled with the wondering of what had caused the change. Small body tensed and a shoulder pressed against the chrysalis in a steady stream of force. Nothing happened at first, but then everything happened all at once.

Rivers of cracks sprang out into spidery webs over the entirety of the stone, followed closely by a burst that left a sizable wound. The creature tumbled through the hole and onto the chilled floor of the cave, large eyes blinking uncomprehendingly at his surroundings. Several more blinks captured his lids as he lay sideways on the ground, unsure what to do with himself. Dark hands reached for the streamlined protrusion at his back side, delicate fingers combed through the black and white streaks with intense interest and irises widened impossibly further. With such a baby face, he was no where near grown into the huge orbs and looked very silly at the moment. Attention drifted abruptly from his tail to, instead, the fleshy things that held it in place. The lemur held them flat out in front of him, studying the way the fur thinned out across his fingers before turning them over. Thoughtful hums and coos bubbled up in surprise as he discovered that there was no fluff at all on his palms! How fascinating. He splayed the each finger out to stretch taut the interesting skin and looked intensely around for something to grab. He spied a shattered piece of his previous home and reached over to grasp at it greedily, enjoying the way it rolled about between the digits. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw upon his shoulder a bundle of jutting out crystals that looked very similar! Interesting, he thought, as he reached for it with another hand, but then he thought of something else.

Ah, the warmth! He remembered - it still shimmered in the air, but the brunt of it resided far higher in the air than he could stretch. The fragment fell with a firm clang to the ground, forgotten as quickly as his tail and own gem had been. Triangle shaped head moved in a twitchy, jerky like fashion to a dark space further ahead, still not used to all the things he could now do. Th space was far larger than he and seemed as if it would swallow him whole if he drew closer. A faint thrum of blue could be seen hovering at what he would eventually know to be an entrance, but he could also make out the occasional flash of red and orange. Unsteady limbs picked their way over the ground towards the source of the heat, undeterred in the slightest by the roars that could also be heard inside. He could not see much beyond the darkness and had no reason to think anything lie beyond it at all, but the intense desire to explore pushed him onward. Plus, there was a strange tightness in his stomach that wouldn't go away unless he got distracted by something else.

WITH A THOUSAND LIES AND A GOOD DISGUISE

I was alone once again, wandering and discovering all on my own. Perhaps i'd meet a new face, or even new danger- a new adventure. Where I was now now was still a mystery, it wasn't all that hard to get lost around here anyways. I recently discovered this tunnel from my trek through the sparkling place, where I played around on the mighty rock as the mighty king. Head was held high and i was paced at my all too usual trot, my chest seemed dim and plain in the light of this tunnel. Though my pace slowed and I moved my head back and forth slowly, studying the green that crept along the walls and listened to almost silent hum that grew more and more noticeable the further i wandered down the tunnel. I was stopped in my tracks as I caught a tiny creature that fell into my path. It moved, stood up, reached for the objects near it. And then started forwards. I watched until the creature got even smaller from the distance. It moved closer down the tunnel, nearing the odd blue stuff that filled the air. Brows furrowed and a darted after it, my paws falling in an easy and steady pattern. I was going to holler to get the creature to stop, but that would only attract anything and everything here. It took me a few moments to catch up, skid to a turning stop in front of the thing and shake my head. He must have just hatched, because he came out of what looked like the same thing I did, except a different color. Baddd idea! I half shouted, hearing a short and quick echo of my own vocals. I shook my head once more and gave a light shove to the shoulder of this creature to lead him in the other direction. Whatever was down that way wasn't something that would let us get out of there alive, new adventure or not- I wasn't going to let myself or this creature stray in that direction. Perhaps I could distract him, maybe. I could bring his attention else where. I stepped back, putting some distance between us. I closed my eyes and shrugged to myself. Brows furrowed as i buried myself in concentration.

AHA! I felt it work once again. the heat began to lightly radiate off of me, the ground beneath my paws slowly dried and smoke rose along my legs. The heat continued to radiate, also getting warmer. I lifted a paw to show the ground beneath me that turned a darker, burnt shade. I tossed my up to the new creature with a wide grin, in hopes of my little clown act would distract it.

HIT EM RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES

Thoughts and spoken words TAGGED: @Razz

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While crawling onward to the large mouth, a series of clicks and clacks bounced around the cave. Slow, at first, but then exceedingly quicker. Tiny black nose pointed toward the ceiling, he blinked up at it in search of the source. The sound seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once, each note ricocheting off in a different angle from the walls. Now, he a green boy to the cave and had no reason to believe the noises were anything out of the ordinary, so he continued on while paying no heed. And thus was why he was rather startled when a brown, fuzzy thing shifted abruptly into his view, claws slashing against the ground in a screeching twist directly in his path. He, in turn, was forced to suddenly halt the movement of his limbs while a surprised howl (though it was rather weak, being one of the first sounds from his throat) slid out. Already large honey eyes widened further before he was somehow rotated to the other direction. He couldn't really remember what had happened, only that one moment he was facing one way, then the other creature touched his shoulder, and then he was facing the other way! Gaze narrowed at the bulky ball, somehow offended by this steering that could only be done to a smaller creature by a larger one. His hands reached for his tail, drawing it around to his front in a loop. Two fingers looped around the stalk and slid down to settle the ruffled fur before he prepared to stalk off away from the intruder once again, fully unconcerned on whatever the thing had said in such a grave tone. Baddd. It did not sound very pleasant, but he would go see anyway!

Just about to turn away, he paused when the other thing decided to move. It closed its eyes and seemed to be very focused. He blinked, unsure what exactly the stranger was doing, but curious all the same. The waiting went on for a while and, bored but still filled with anticipation, he began rolling his mouth in a chewing-like fashion, but only actually chewing air. At what seemed like long last, something happened. The heat he had felt earlier picked up, but he seemed to have found its real source! His mouth popped open into an awed 'o' that only widened as smoke continued to drift away from the stranger and, upon the removal of its paw, he discovered that the ground had changed colors! Absolutely intrigued, he charged forward with all fingers readied to investigate the heater. Finger tips pried apart the hairs of the heater's shoulder, perhaps hoping to find answers hidden on the skin but he found nothing. Frustrated howl whooshed out, unable to figure out the cause of the heat that had originally drawn him out of his home.

He skittered back away from the new thing, already wondering if he could do the same! What had the other done? Closed his eyes and scrunched up its face? Easy enough! He decided to try the same and settled back upon his haunches, eyes slipped away under a veil of black and the white of his forehead creased with concentration. [post roll] Eyes opened again and he raised both hands to look at the ground below, mouth opened in expectant pride, but it quickly faded when he found nothing. Crestfallen, he looked back up at his new companion, only to be met with surprise. A noticeable thrum filled the air, small beats of noise that originated from the stranger's chest. The ground beneath his feet also felt suddenly rougher, each crack and bump obvious to his touch. Awed eyes followed a hand until it pressed with wonder against the floor. A mere second later, the sensations ended and yellow eyes looked accusingly to the fluff ball for some declaration of guilt or an explanation.

WITH A THOUSAND LIES AND A GOOD DISGUISE

The creature went as far as to investigate my spell, I gave out my usual cub coo, and waited for him to finish. Pearly whites were gleaming and I gave a loud and full laugh. I pranced over to the little guys side and plopped down onto my belly, stretching out. I curled my paws together, still feeling the heat fading away. I watched as he covered his eyes with his paws and chuckled as I saw his reaction when he dropped his paws. It's called a spell! I'm a fire bear! Er, well. Fire element! I jumped back up to paws and lightly nudged the creature with my snout. And i think you just pulled off your first one! I shot him another smile. Trotting back around I made my way to sit facing him, and in the opposite direction of the ominous place down the tunnel. I'm Grimmloch, call me Grimm! I paused, figuring that this little creature probably wouldn't know how to say much of anything, let alone his name. But instead I waited, tilting my to the side as I waited for him to do something else.

HIT EM RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES

Thoughts and spoken words TAGGED: @Razz

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Spell, bear, fire, element. Strange, strange words! He sort of understood them, in a fuzzy, round about way. Nothing was very clear at all, but he could, at least, understand that it was no longer an "it", but instead a thing called a bear! No, not just a bear. A Grimmloch, too. Grimm. A Grimm Bear. But, apparently, he only had to call him Grimm. Easy enough, he thought as he pondered what he would be called. Grimm was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him, he assumed, to say what he was. He chewed on nothing again, scrunched eyes leaning up toward the ceiling as he thought. What was he to be called? Something squirmed about in the recesses of his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it, much less form the correct word with his tongue. It was a sharp sounding thing, not soft and rounded like the gentle thuds he had heard earlier. Speaking of those, the Grimm Bear had also informed him that he had done his very first spell. It had not been the same spell the "fire bear" had done, something different entirely. He didn't really understand it, but he did know that the noise had come from inside Grimm himself. Deciding to ponder that whole spell thing later, he refocused himself on what he was supposed to be doing. Right upon shifting his mind back to the word, a piece of it was not fast enough in its escape. He grasped for it hurriedly, managing to catch it by the tail just before it went away. Wide eyes fell back toward Grimm, mouth wide open in his excitement. Victoriously, he puffed out his silver chest and shuffled his feet. "Zzz," he buzzed out with pride. He could feel it was incomplete, feel that it was not all there but he didn't mind so much. The rest would come to him later and, despite the shortness of the syllable, he felt as if he had gotten pretty close to the real thing. Satisfied for the time being with the whole...name? yes, name thing, his mind shifted back again toward the "spells". A small hand raised to gesture at Grimm, recalling what he had earlier said. "Fire bear." That same hand drew back to settle diagonally across his chest, fingers curled to clutch at the fur there. "What?" Unable to really inquire about the state of his existence and what "element" he had, the simple word would have to do. Hopefully, combined with the gesture, he could convey his meaning, but Zz wasn't certain he would find any answers here just yet. This thought didn't exactly concern him too much and he felt no true rush to know everything. It would be nice, sure, to understand more about himself and the world he had popped into, but his juvenile mind only had the capacity to flit between whatever was interesting at the moment. That interest began to decay and his small body rocked to the side, head cocked sideways to peer behind Grimm and the large mouth he had originally been headed for. The blue still flickered with bright pulses and dims from time to time and the occasional rumble sounded from deep within the recesses. Zz shuffled eeevverrr so slightly to the side to peek as much as he could, watchful gaze flitted back and forth between the fire bear and his escape route. "Speech" ------------------------------------------ Stone not shown in image, it is a cluster of 2 small and 2 medium tourmalinated quartz on his right shoulder.

WITH A THOUSAND LIES AND A GOOD DISGUISE

I realized i was putting too much out there for this critter- I was like he was not very long ago, but I learned quickly. this one here.. this one didn't, so it seemed. I watched as he lost interest in my tricks and words. But he did muster up something to say back. Zzzz? I tried mimicking what he said, sounding some what close.

Zzz was curious, and so i'd attempt to show him just what exactly lurked in the direction he wanted to bolt off in. I heard others speaking aroundthe caves.. and I wasnt that stupid- like I said, I learned fast. What lurked beyond the caves mouth could produce magic much worse than mine.. and I dont think its even called magic. One thing I knew for sure was that the mysterious creature used fire to harm others.. maybe I could show this creature that before he ends up like a crispy creature. There something new i was still learning, but maybe, just maybe if the slightest bit of it worked I could show him what could happen. I jumped back a few steps and tossed my head back towards the mouth, and looked back to Zz. Shaking my head, I mused to ZzBad!. while I didthat, I also mustered up all of the concentration I could, not sure exactly how to work this, but it may very well do the trick to change Zz's mind about going into Polaris. I would try to show him what it would feel like if he were to encounter what awaits him in Polaris if he still chooses to go there. --
There was heat that was building up on my insides, and it worked its way up from my chest. It wasn't much, but it was enough to really sting with a burning sensation. I jumped back again and tossed my head forwards, sending the blazing hot gob just before Zz's feet. I then quickly darted over and slowly touched the bile with my paw. Instantly I felt the stinging and the burn that gradually got warmer until I pulled my paw away. Followed by a short but loud "tsssss" from the contact, I myself howled out: yyoowwww! I jumped around frantically for all but a few seconds, shaking my paw furiously. I then made my way back over to Zz, showing the the bottom of my paw, freshly tender from the burn. I used one paw to point at the paw in pain, and then moved it to the side, pointing at the mouth to polaris. See? That is thiss. I said, giving a short cringe as I touched the burn once more. Very bad. I nodded, and then attended to my paw, attempting to cool it down by huffing at it, also waiting to see if I was accomplished making the connection between what would happen to Zz and the opening.

HIT EM RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES

Thoughts and spoken words TAGGED: @Razz

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