The valkhound had found itself wandering into Gemini, confused. At first, the tunnel leading here had been quite quite pretty! Crystalline structures and weird lessers, but as soon as it stepped into Gemini proper, it halted. Ew. What is all this? Everything was covered in some nasty, nasty white shit. The floor looked sticky with the mold. Its nose scrunched and its tail curled in.

It stepped up to a crevice in the ground, where slick mold was coating the crystals and small mushrooms were pushing up from the ground. It reached out with a claw and poked the stuff, horrified at the weird touch of it, the way it clung to its short fur and paw pads...ugh. Heat seared through its foot, burning off the fungus and also the mold sitting in the crevice. Nasty stuff.

It looked around. The mold was everywhere. Covering the crystals and the walls and floor. It felt so off in here too, like it shouldn't be here...or perhaps the mold shouldn't be here.

But what caught its attention for real was an odd something in the wall, near the waterfall. Something glowing. Carefully, it meneuvered its way through the cave until it was standing at the pool's edge looking up towards where the strange rift was. It wasn't in the wall at all, it was in the air. Athebyne tilted its head, intrigued. What is this thing doing here?

The Surface

A soft, dark hand turned the figurine over. "That's a bit much. I'd trade... seven."

The black marble had once been smooth. It was a little rough now, a couple scratches on the bottom, a chip on its side, though this had been rubbed down so it wasn't sharp, at least. But it was clearly aged, though the paler veins that threaded through it attested to the quality of its stone.

The bustle of the marketplace passed them by: raised voices haggling and calling out greetings, the rising smoke of incense, the smell of baked bread and roasting meat, the crunch of footfalls. Faint frost-breath, indicative of early-morning chill, drifted upward as the vendor protested. "It's her finest work! ...Well, so far. That's genuine marble, right there. And those are rubies!" he added, reaching out and tapping a finger delicately between the gleaming red eyes.

The man perusing the work laughed quietly. It was nowhere near the artist's finest work, and they both knew it. "She's made better. The subject matter's a bit... grim, don't you think?" It wasn't their region's colors. This was almost a celebration of another nation's might, if he didn't know better. One of the hounds.

"Certainly not, they said it was just her pet. Sure, it wasn't really thought through, I guess, but that's why it's here and not in a gallery! She's famous, now, you know? I'd trade it for ten," he added, long mustache twitching with his broad "hoping for a sale" smile.

Over and over, turned carefully in his hands, and he imagined it. Worn, a little battered, still beautiful. The hounds, running their prey, baying across the fields and through the forests. An accidental image so many would rather forget. There was speculation about the sculptor's leanings, and loyalties. Question about how the purity of art could infiltrate the common psyche, could affect perception. Could make even horror look beautiful.

Or maybe it really had just been her pet. Either way, works like this had made her famous.

He shrugged. "Eight."

"Nine!"

He counted out the tokens of the marketplace, thinking it'd be a nice little souvenir, anyway. And thinking about how many breakfasts this could've bought him. And thinking, as the thin paper wrapped the figurine, how piercing those inset ruby eyes seemed to be, before they vanished into the wrapping. They were almost... disconcerting. He'd leave it in the wagon, just so he didn't have to think about it.

---

The Caves

The Rift hummed, then abruptly expanded. A carefully paper-wrapped figurine tumbled out, thunking softly onto the rock before Athebyne.

Within the thin brown packaging was a slightly scuffed, but beautifully made and smooth, sculpture of a sitting hound. It was carved from black marble veined with silver, its eyes two inset, faceted rubies. There was no magic to it; it was just an image, yet the emotion that had been put into it gave its gaze an intensity that was impressive, for a seven-inch-tall dog.

@Athebyne

It didn't fall to the ground at first - upon expansion, Athebyne leaned closer, eyes wide, and the statue came tumbling down and smacked right into their face.

The valkhound flinched back and blinked as the statue tumbled to the ground at their paws, reaching up to rub at the spot it had hit, which hurt from the impact. But then, it remembered what it had been given and looked down.

Careful claws picked up the wrapped thing, which was tiny in their hands, and looked it over right and left. Holding it up close to their bright eyes to see what was up with it. They didn't really understand. It was just brown paper?

They fiddled a bit with a loose part which suddenly peeled back. They froze, wondering if they'd just broken it, but then glimpsed something black beneath the flap. Was this like a fruit? Or...like a tree? It pulled more of the brown stuff away and at last revealed the little figuring inside.

Enchanted, Athebyne sat back on its haunches as it moved itself into a sitting position to hold up the statue properly. Under the lights, the ruby eyes flashed brilliantly. It looked like an animal! Perhaps it was a gembound too, but really small. Was it a chrysalis, waiting to awaken? Hmmm, but then wouldn't the ruby be its entire body?

It sat there for a while just looking at its gift. Turning it around in the light, sniffing it, licking it, checking for and noting every single detail.