i swear it's getting harder just to exhale
backed up into corners, bitter in the lens

Her emergence is slow, near painless. A little of her fur comes off in the silken threads of her chrysalis, but other than that she is... well, scott free from the confines of her previous enclosure. Her heart beats rapidly beneath the fur of her chest, and she glances around at what might surround her. Heck. Where was she? She was new to this. All of this!


Virelle. A word, a name. Something to call herself. Something new. Everything was new. Everything felt new, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being freaking watched! Ugh, why did it bother her so much? What made this feeling appear in her head? Her body? She hated the feeling.


This feeling of fear.


She coughed, clearing her throat. "Is anyone there?" But her voice came out mumbled, feeble. She cleared her throat again, this time a big ahem sounding through the cavern that lay in front of her. Her ear twitched. "Is-- Is anyone around? Anyone at-at all?" Her tail wrapped itself as close to her body as it could, even as the pale blue of her eyes scanned her surroundings for anything that might stand out-- creatures, or something that she could possibly talk to... anything. Everything. It was all terrifying anyways, so what was the harm in trying something new?


Regardless of if an answer came, she would lay herself close to the ground and creep towards the (seemingly) glowing water of a great river that cuts through the middle of the cavern that she had emerged into.

actions "speaking" thinking

virelle

It lingered near the glowing-cave with the big crystal. It observed it with passive interest and a healthy touch of fear. It had attempted to touch it once and that had not gone particularly well. It looked at it now, sitting cat-like, the tip of its tail twitching as it observed the many facets and followed popping sparks coming off of the Spire. It was very energizing here. It wondered why.

It didn't hear, at first, the sound of a chrysalis breaking, blending almost completely into the sound of the Spire crackling, but it most certainly did hear the voice that rose up above the sound. Its head snapped around in its direction and it rose to its feet, wide eyes blinking as it looked for what had made that sound.

Hard at first to narrow in on the location of Virelle, so well did she blend into her surroundings, that it had to go walking towards her at first until at last he noticed the cowering wolf pup. It paused, leaning forward a bit. It was very small, wasn't it?

"Yes. I am here," it called as it approached, long ears twisted forward with interest. It made no efforts to appear smaller or less imposing, but it did not approach aggressively. It was simply interested, curious, short nose twitching curiously.

Its gaze was distracted momentarily by the chrysalis shards scattered about. Very pretty pale blue, which was odd to Athebyne - in a cave system with so, so many valkhounds emerging at once, it had yet to meet someone without an oilstone core. At first, it mistook this crystal for something else - it glanced back at the Spire behind them. "How did you get over here?" it wondered aloud. "Are there more of you?"

@Virelle