[Origin Cave]

Origin Triathlon: We Heard You Like Lore

We heard your like lore, so we put some lore in your lore. That is to say, we're having another lore contest! However, this one is going to be a little more special: this contest will have you writing up lore about a specific room or tunnel in Origin Cave. You can choose any of the rooms/tunnels and your lore may revolve around how the room or tunnel came about, your speculations on the purpose or history of the room or tunnel, or even why that place got its name in the first place! Like last time, your stories will be told from the perspective of your character.

Da Rulez:
- Lore stories must be longer than 400 words.
- The story MUST be focused on a room or tunnel in Origin Cave.
- The story must be told from the perspective of one of your own characters.
- You may enter up to 3 stories.
- Name your story!

Prizes!

1st Place: The creator of the winning story will receive ʡ200 and have their lore featured on the Lore Library page!
Runner Ups: We will select 2 runner ups who will receive a prize of ʡ100 each.


To Enter: Post your story below from the account of the character telling it, and don't forget to name the story!

The contest will end at 11:59 CST September 30th.

The Gate
a story of Tunnel K

"Do you remember how I told you that what you can do, does not make you who you are? That who you are is within you, that your mind and heart are what matters?

Today, I am going to tell you why.

I've brought you here to show you a truth. A lesson. You know this tunnel; you know that Canis lies beyond, and Orion, on this end. A dry crypt of bones, and a vast room of glittering crystal.

You know that this tunnel is... wrong. Empty. Cold. Filled with a mist that never clears, and a sense that we should not be here. That we are trespassing. That this is a... a void, more than a tunnel. You are familiar with how it clutches at your mind, whispers for you to leave. To get out.

Have you ever thought of why?

The bones, they speak to me; the fungus, speaks to me. They tell me that the cold dark whispers are residue of an old magic. A barrier. A door. They tell me that this magic, this tunnel, was used to blockade refugees... or prisoners. They tell me that of the caves to either end, one is a crypt. A graveyard. A prison. An abattoir. That one is an ark. A sanctuary.

But which one is which?

Is the place of bones, filled with the piles of the dead--was it a prison, for those who lived within? Or was it the place to which they fled? The room of stars, and throne: was it the host of a monster, a tyrant, a dictator? Or was it a place where the fair and the just gathered to the benefit of all, with their criminals safely locked in Canis? Did the bones in Canis belong to those who suffered and died, fear and pain and madness governing their last days? Or were the dead survivors, hiding away and making do with what they had, safe from what lay beyond the tunnel?

As you consider, let me turn your mind to another truth.

You know that we have no elders. We are born from stone. We have had to find our own way, to help one another. We have many dangers to face: the dragon surfacing from its long slumber, the darkness in the Eyes. There are evils that lurk in these caves, dangers we must quickly learn to fight, or we will fall, and join the many bones of Canis. We will fall, to whatever destroyed those who came before us.

As we grow, as we learn alone and with little guidance, there are those who will embrace their ideas of the truth. Some will say that their truths are the only truths. They will name gods, and leaders, and ideas and ideals, and if we are not careful--and perhaps even if we are--they will begin to say that theirs are the only gods. The only truths. They will fight for what they believe to be right; to spread their truths through others. There will be argument over imagined insults.

There will be blood.

Now here is your lesson:

Hold no gods. Keep your mind open for the truth, for once you close it around an idea, no matter how true or how false, you will become blind. Listen for old knowledge--the knowledge we will need to survive.

It does not matter what your body can do: hunter, guardian or cripple, what matters is your mind. There will always be stronger enemies, here. It is those who seek the truth who will make the difference. And those who open the minds of others.

I bring you back now to the twin caves of Orion and Canis, and the death-barrier between them. This hell's gate that's been opened, this tunnel that once kept them split.

I have told you that one was a sanctuary--and one was imprisonment. Was the tunnel meant to keep the dead in Canis, or was it meant to keep them out of Orion?

And perhaps you've already decided which was which. Perhaps others will decide the same, and they will fight over it. One might see the bones, and the barrier here, in this cold, dark tunnel, and think that Canis was a place where the unwanted, the enemy, were locked away to die. Others might see the fortresses, and the tunnel barrier, as a guard. So some might see it as a refuge, and say that the tunnel was a protective door, and not an imprisoning wall.

So imagine, now, that both forge their beliefs, and both fight over them. And after all, one must be right; perhaps the truth will become known, in time, and vindicate one, or the other.

Now here is the meat of the lesson--or perhaps I should say, its bones. I have told you that danger will rise in these caves, and that only those with true knowledge will know how to fight, and how to survive. And so the lesson is to always keep an open mind, and believe only proof of the truth.

With that in mind, I tell you that there may always be hidden truths, things that you did not think of. That no one has thought of. Fights may break out, but what if no one is right, and their minds, closed to the truth, doom us all? What if all become blind to the truth that lies beneath what they see?

I have asked you if Canis was a sanctuary, or a prison. If it was a crypt, or a refuge.

In the spirit of our lesson, I ask you:

What if it was both? ...

I leave you in this tunnel, in the darkness. Listen to the water dripping down the walls. Feel the emptiness. The chill. The mist. The wrongness of it. Feel the echo of hidden memory. Realize that for all its empty darkness, there are truths hidden here that could illuminate our minds, and ensure our survival.

Remember always that its truth--that all truths--may be things far beyond what we can see. This tunnel is a gateway between two caves: but within lies a lesson that forms a gate to the truth. Remember this."

THE BONES OF CANIS
a tale of Canis
( a bit of a continuation/linked to The Gate, by Giggle )
Azazel had been brewing this story for quite some time, having inherited quite a story-telling nature from that little white deer, so he had been saving it until many could hear. Waving a talon, he cleared his throat and prepared. Then he told his tale.

“Canis seems like it has always been a graveyard, and room that is simply a memory of the dead. A place where bones are cast aside and dumped uselessly. Each and every remain has a story, and any bone you may find in the home of the Bonebound are simply alien… creatures that never existed in our time. Canis is what tells us that we are not the first beings to live here. That we are far from the first.

“This is what happened in this cave, what made it become so grim and dark… what filled it with the bones of the dead.

“It’s a peculiar tale. The caves once thrived with life, very similar to how it is now. Brimming with creatures that perhaps are not even Gembound, the caves were also in harmony. Each living being that breathed and exhaled were in harmony, working together to survive. Canis once was a beautiful room, filled with many exotic plants much like Eridanus. Flowers grew as far as the eye could see, vines thickly spiderwebbed across the walls and ceiling, hanging down and glowing with an ethereal light.

“At that time, Canis was the only known cave. Only it could support the creatures of the caves at that time, and perhaps that was their creator’s fault. There was a long period of peace and tranquility, but over time, these creatures doubted that there was only Canis. They desired freedom, and they thought that they could get it in only one way. Banding together was the first group of their time, the Seekers. They searched far and wide in Canis, but could not find any exits, or any that were obvious. There was one door, and only one. It was hidden away by a thick slab of stone, shielded from the peering eyes of the creatures by thick vines.

“A rather young dragon by the name of Raheerah had been following the Seekers closely, and he was there when the group discovered the gate to more caves. His ambition overtaking him, the dragon decided then that he would be the one to free the creatures from their chains. He wanted to be remembered as a hero, not a chaotic monster as he had shown already. Already the largest beast in the caverns, the dragon awaited the hours where all fell asleep quietly.

“Slowly, he crept towards the door, staring at it with a fire in his eyes. He could save everyone. He could open up new worlds. It would be a story remembered even by those who absolutely hated him!

“With mighty and muscular arms, he stood on two legs and he ripped the stone door from it’s hinges, gazing past the thick fog that filled the cavern beyond. Just off, he could see shimmering specks of blue and white, the gate to Orion. Scampering towards the light, he gazed upon the beautiful shimmering ruins, and saw the majestic throne rising above the city. Curiosity still unsated, Raheerah ventured even further, finding the Core of the caves… Polaris. In the room was a massive blue stone, a tower of magicka far larger than Raheerah himself. It was so tall that its peak nearly scraped the roof of the cavern.

“With each of these discoveries, Raheerah found a new emotion inside him; greed. He had worked to get here, and this new world would be his, and belong to no one else. But he knew it would be a matter of time before everyone would awaken and find the gate mysteriously open and explore the newly opened caves. Smoke rising from his frame, Raheerah built an inferno inside his being, fiercely pounding towards Canis. When he arrived, those who once hated him were already curiously exploring the cave. As they saw the monster, each one gasped. They knew from that fire in his eyes… that Raheerah planned to kill each and every single one of them.

“Pushing himself onto two limbs, the dragon exhaled, an inferno spiralling from his gaping jaws and turning the air in the room into white-hot gasses. In an instant, all those who had wandered out of Canis were reduced to mere bones and gemstones. Gazing upon the mess, the dragon pondered. He had not realized he held this much power within him, that his inner flame was so deadly.

“Raheerah knew then that he could use his strength to conquer those who were too weak to resist his flames, and what was a paradise for all could be reduced to mere cinders in seconds.

“Hissing, the dragon stepped easily through the white-hot air, blinking away the gasses from his eyes and wandering into Canis. The others had heard the screams and the deafening POP! of his nuclear-like blast. They gathered into one spot, unknowing of the danger that stood before them. Without any hesitation, Raheerah released yet another inferno upon the creatures that roamed the Caves in days of old. The room was lit aflame, thick and hungry flames eagerly eating away at anything that lived. Flora and fauna that once filled this room were reduced to just ashes and bones. Not many bones survived, and a few of those who had the element of fire living within them could tolerate the flames long enough to attempt to flee, but they would soon find that their escape had been blocked by the very stone wall that held them back from discovering the rest of the caves. Any life left in Canis soon died of starvation, sickness, dehydration, or suffocation from the thick smoke.

“Canis was shut off from the Caves for cycles and cycles. Eventually, the survivors passed, their untouched bones mixing with the burnt and twisted skeletons that remained in the cave. Thus Canis became the room of bones, void of any life for many ages. In time, the stones that hid this room away succumbed to the wiles of time and collapsed, opening the room of bones to the caves.

“Tunnel K knows of this tale, thus gives a foreboding feeling to any who enter, in hopes that the same events that occurred so long ago do not again. Now, in our time. It is up to us, The Bonebound, to guard this cave in hopes this tragedy does not strike again.”

Azazel chirped his last paragraph proudly, and he nodded, gazing up to the bones with gems in their eyes that lined the upper reaches of the rooms. Bones guide us all from making the same mistake.

The Darkness

The scarred pup shuffles back and forth briefly, back legs limp. He seems to drag himself along rather than actually walk, tail limp. He drops a rat on the floor and sits down next to it. He stares, for a moment, as he turns to lick at his destroyed back - freezing up somewhat. There is a short pause. "I know a story my mother told me," the crippled african dog said quietly, abruptly. He turns to face the dead rat next to him, using his mouth to tear it open. As he faces the smooth wall his forepaw finds it's way into the gore that spills out onto the cave floor...

"Long ago, way before any of us here had emerged from our stone prisons, there was nothing but an inky blackness. There were gembounds - just like you and I, that dwelled here; but they couldn't see each other. It was so dark, a mother-bird could feed her young and not even see her own children.

The gembounds began to realise that some sounded a lot like others. It would lead to confusion, until one day, after a particularly frustrating time trying to find his friends, a bird with long tail feathers possessing one of the strongest voices anyone had ever heard spoke up."

As the dog spoke, he lifted himself up with one paw onto the floor, and with the other he began to carefully paint an image on the wall in the blood of the rat. When Bones was done, he turned and sat back down to continue his story, absent-mindedly licking his bloodied paw.

"'I have an idea!' the bird with long tail feathers said. 'We shall give ourselves identities, words to refer ourselves to.'

The gembounds liked the idea of this. They'd pick out names for themselves that was related to who they were. They knew they all had defining features that made them, them. A bird called herself Talon. A boar called himself Tusk. Some would pick names that they liked the sound of, like Scrak or Crawk.

And for some time, they were happy. They all had their names, and communication was no longer a problem. It was easier to talk in the darkness, after all, when every voice had a word to identify itself with. Cycles passed and all was well - it was no system that needed changing.

But, there came a greedy lizard."

The dog was on all fours again, paw finding it's way to the fallen and gutted rat. He spoke as he smeared the blood across the wall.

"He had scales blacker than the darkness the gembounds wandered blindly in. He had a greed more intense than anyone else could ever comprehend. He decided he wanted more than one name, he began to collect all of them.

Woll the Darkness Gatherer.
Nix the Cave Dweller.
Jexx the Water-skimmer

All sorts of silly and grand names, he would take them for himself - but even that was not enough for him. He began to steal the names of other gembounds - when someone asked for his name he would simply say the names of others and they became his own, another name to add to his collection.

Now, even in the darkness most gembounds were aware of what they look like. Birds were aware of their talons and their beaks, dogs were aware of their snouts and their tails, and the lizard was aware that, he was not as tall as the horses that would blindly but gracefully wander the caves. He wasn't as strong as the lions, and he wasn't as nice to look at as the cats.

His onyx scales were damaged and broken, his mouth and tongue were deformed. But did the other gembounds know this? No. It was just simply too dark for them to know of the lizard's true nature. Back then, the only way you could judge another gembound was by their voice.

And unfortunately, the lizard had a voice as powerful as birds. He would call himself the King of the Caves, the Handsome and Wonderful Squig, and the gembounds would not know better. They believed him on a whim, because such a tiny thing had learned to bellow as loud as he possibly could."

And once more, the dog was on his feet, painting on the wall.

"The other gembounds were upset over their stolen names. They knew that they couldn't ever let anyone take away what they were. Your identity is all you ever have. They decided among themselves to create and army, and once they did, off they marched to see Gig the Magnificent.

The lizard fled before them. He was cowardly. He left their names behind and they picked them back up - but then they carried on after the lizard, knowing that if they did not stop him then, they would have to face him again in the years to come. In his haste to escape, the lizard raced up the tunnel walls, and pulled himself up the ropes that held the light-orbs, and tugged them into place quite by accident--and for the first time, there was light in that cave.

They could see what they were scared of the whole time. A tiny, pathetic lizard with lungs too big for his chest.

The gembounds learned two things from the lizard. The first; just because something seems frightening doesn't mean it is. It's silly to be afraid of something so small and pathetic, after all. The second, do not lose sight of who you are. There is only one of you, ever."

The painted dog's voice came to a slow stop, tired. He only gave a brief, polite nod before he leaned over and picked up a femur bone in his mouth, limping and hauling it back to his den.

Lonely Hearts

They had asked her for another story, and, as she couldn't help herself, she smiled sweetly to those who had gathered. Who was she to deny them? Clover cleared her throat, settling herself comfortably, and began.

"This is a tale about Tunnel M, and how it came to be.

Once upon a time, there were two creatures, one of ice, and one of the earth and stars. Some of you might have met the one of ice - powerful and beautiful, a phoenix of prowess and no equal. Humble and wise, the very air around it falling under its aura of cold as it flew, this creature was, long ago, beset by all gembounds around it for its wonderful advice and calm ways. But often, the phoenix would grow weary of its burden, and retire to a place where none could reach them. They flew under the cracks of their beloved home Pisces and slept, making their nest there, filling the narrow spaces (for it was not a tunnel quite yet) with comforting ice.

But one day, when the phoenix had nestled into their private home, it felt the earth near it crumble and shake. Alarmed, they looked around, and saw lovely silver light peeking through the cracks of their spelled ice. Curious, they clawed away their ice, aiding the opening bit by bit, and saw a lovely (albeit dirty) face on the other side. The other creature had eyes like the stars, brilliant and shining, and, as they were tired of digging, they both had a conversation through the gaps, odd as it was to the phoenix.

The phoenix had never felt so comfortable with this new friend they had made, able to let down their guard completely, unlike with the other, clambering, needy gembounds they always took care of. The phoenix loved the others, but with this new friend of the stars, they were content, and they were never lonely. The master of ice felt themselves falling in love with those silver eyes and their charming ways and their stories of the rooms beyond Pisces. Neither felt the urgent need to complete the tunnel, adoring the mystery of having most of themselves concealed by the small cracks. They were happy together, seeing each other whenever they had the time.

But their easy love was not meant to be - as you very well know, the ice phoenix was called to battle against the awful dragon of flame, and their battle raged on and on, shaking the entirety of the caves. Little did the phoenix know that the silver eyed beauty was waiting for them in the tiny tunnel, waiting for their daily conversations, ignorant of the fight, when it collapsed.

After the battle, the phoenix, beaten and weary, half-flew, half-hobbled to their nest, wanting, needing their friend's love, only to discover that the narrow crack was filled with ice and stone. The majestic bird went half insane, scratching away the tunnel, using what remnants of their power they still could cling to themselves to move the snow, but they couldn't find their star friend no matter how hard they tried. Crying from desperation, they completed the tunnel with no regard for cleanliness or ease of travel, only hoping to find the creature they had fallen in love with.

But alas, it wasn't meant to be. Their tears flowed down the tunnel, forming ice as cold as their barren heart, seeping half-way down the tunnel. The other half was created by the one of the stars. Bereft, the phoenix left the tunnel, never to see it again, unable to continue searching. They felt as if they would never be able to withstand the sight of seeing their friend frozen under the rubble, especially since they were never able to tell them how it felt.

Thus, the creation of Tunnel M."

She gave a long sigh, bowing her long neck low for her audience. The short tale had taken an unexpected sad turn, but she felt as if there was still hope the star-friend was still out there. Perhaps that was a storyteller's fancy, but she wanted to believe that.