It was a new day in the same place. Shi was doing a little better at walking, now. Pacing up and down slowly was giving hir the workout shi needed in the safety of the tunnel shi was born in. The racket of golems emerging into Polaris was a distant sound that never seemed to get too close, which was best. There would be no way for hir to escape; shi could barely walk, let alone escape.

Today, shi was working on climbing onto a low, mossy-covered shelf of rock that jutted out in the middle of the tunnel. Shi started at a sit, walking hir front end up onto the wall, claws clinging to any crevice they could hook into. Carefully, shi added weight into hir rear legs, lifting up til shi was all the way up, using the wall to brace so shi wouldn't fall. Hir nose sniffed the rock, then, one paw at a time, shi shifted hirself so hr upper half was now replying on the shelf to not let hir fall.

"Asgina can do," she said, "Asgina can climb."

So Asgina did, throwing the foot away from the wall up to the rock. Hir tail flailed, trying to assist with the imbalance has shi dragged hirself onto the shelf. Shi slipped twice, yelping each time in fear that shi would fall and hurt again, but luckily managed to scrape up onto the shelf where she curled up, front paws dangling over the edge.

"Asgina did it!" shi said with glee, a big smile on hir face. Everything looked different from up on hir perch. It was such a lovely feeling.

@Lei

Polaris was an... exciting place, Lei was learning as she explored-- its glow was magical and made her feel all the stronger for her presence there, but there was a price to that comfort, and even the thought of that price made the hair on her back stiffen. Golems, the animated rock-piles that ate magic, that would attack gembounds and try to rip the life-giving gems out of their bodies. Lei had only been in Polaris a few times, and too many of those times had contained Golems.

Even once was way too many.

But she was also a kitten, and the urge for exploration was strong in her; the result was-- when she worked up the bravery to leave Pisces at all-- that she'd dart out into the main room of Polaris for a few minutes, and then dart right back. Her excuse was that she was looking for the golems, but in reality she was trying to work up the courage to linger in the room. Today that courage was beyond her-- she dashed in and then slunk right back out, and eventually gave up after a few tries-- her explorations would have to be limited to the tunnels, today.

But though the tunnels may be short, they were not empty: as she wandered back the way she had come (which was not to Pisces), she heard the small voice of another young gembound, and sped up slightly to investigate. It turned out to be the voice of a young puma who had evidently been speaking to hirself; Lei craned her head to get a better look at the stranger, perching on the wall and looking proud of hirself. She didn't know Asgina's difficulties, hadn't seen the puma struggling to walk or to climb, but she did hear the pride in 'Asgina did it' and smiled.

"Hello!" she greeted cheerfully, because to Lei's young mind, all children were the potential to be friends. "That place looks comfortable!"

Lei sat back on her haunches; if the shelf had been bigger, she might've made a move to join the puma up there, but she had learned about Personal Space in her adventures, and didn't want to make strangers uncomfortable, especially not potential friends.

@Asgina

Image by Banshee/xx-Starry@DA; Table by me; Pattern from Dinpattern.com

Asgina was just settling into hir spot, the rock under hir starting to warm up via hir body heat, when a voice startled hir badly enough to make hir clench the rock with claws. Shi looked toward the sound to find a creature that looked similar enough to hirself. The mentioned of hir rock being comfortable made hir look down at it, then back to Lei. A tentative smile formed on hir maw.

"It is a good place," shi said. "Very hard climb."

Hir tail waved behind hir as curiosity filled hir up. Shi slowly sat up, hunched over and watching Lei. It was almost tempting to crawl back down, but that was a whole new challenge that shi wasn't sure shi was ready for. "Asgina might be stuck, though," she said, noting the realization out loud to her acquaintance.

"Asgina is curious about you," her head tilted as she said it. Bright orange eyes twitched very slightly as they examined Lei.

@Lei

Lei gave Asgina a toothy grin, the sort of wide kitten-smile that little lions were capable of and rather good at. She loved attention as much as the next girl-- possibly more-- and having a stranger say she was interesting made her feel good. Besides, she understood curiosity. She was curious herself. That's why she was out here, wandering, even if the threat of golems lay on the other side of this tunnel, and the golems terrified her.

The climb didn't look particularly hard to Lei, but she wasn't going to judge, even if she didn't know the disadvantage at which Asgina was starting. She just nodded politely, and then tilted her head curiously. "You can watch everyone coming and going from there." she observed, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of knowing such fun little details. "Maybe discover fun secrets!" She grinned, if possible, wider, and got to her feet. "But I can help you down, probably, if you're stuck."

"I'm Lei," she added brightly, "And I'm a Lion. You look like a lion but not at the same time. Are you Asgina?" she assumed so, from context, but it never hurt to be sure.

Image by Banshee/xx-Starry@DA; Table by me; Pattern from Dinpattern.com

The young, genderless cub tilted hir head dramatically, trying to imagine a secret and the venture of discovering it; like treasure within a crypt. Alas, it was all a little beyond hir, yet. Shi did feel a reassuring comfort knowing shi could receive help from another, although shi was a bit scared to allow it.

Hir name was interesting and short. Lei, shi sang in hir head. Lei, Lei, Lei, Leeeiii! Another dramatic head tilt about being a lion. Shi was fixing to respond, when suddenly, shi was asked if shi was Asgina. Shi froze, as much movement being produced from hir as what may be expected of a statue. "I... am Asgina..?" shi said slowly, trying to process it.

Frustration began building the more shi tried to understand. The more shi tried, the less shi succeeded. Shi stood and shook hir head, which was a rather terrible mistake. Hir feet went out from under hir, body swinging heavily to the left. Within seconds, shi was a heap on the ground, the collision of hir body and the rocks creation a nauseating thud, along with a hallow rap of hir head against the ground.

Shi screeched.

The concern formed by hir disassociation dissipated as the pain grew, head spinning and bright colors showing as swirling spots as shi blinked several time, trying to regain the vision that blackened with hir concussion. Shi stood again, head tilted heavily. Hir eyes squeezed shut as the pain made hir world spin faster. Shi began rushing backwards, slamming hirself into a wall in hir confusion. Shi yelped, startled by it, then laid down, planting hirself to the ground as hir only method of grounding back to reality.

By now, Asgina was sobbing, confusion and pain overwhelming hir from lightly bleeding nose to flickering tail tip. Shi was finally able to see relatively well again. Hir eyes met Lei's as shi sniffled, blood and mucus trying to seek it's way out of hir nasal passage. "Asgina broken," she blubbered, having long forgotten what even disrupted hir mindset to begin with.

@Lei

In this instance, Lei was a child who learned by doing. She had never encountered anyone with any of Asgina's peculiarities before, and thus didn't know to be careful of her speech. She didn't know the question she thought of as so simple and so innocuous would be, to Asgina, so very jarring. She guessed Asgina was going to fall when the genderless cub stood and shook hir head, not paying attention to things like balance-- she leaped up, leaning against the stone, trying to balance the other, but her movements were too slow. Asgina fell with a thud, and Lei mewled her concern and jumped around, face contorted with worry. It stayed contorted with worry, as Lei tried to process Asgina's reactions, uncertain to what to do.

She didn't know how to stop this, and she didn't know if she could stop this. Was it physical, or something else? Certainly the bleeding nose Asgina ended up with was physical, and probably any other injuries shi sustained by falling; bruises, at least. Lei felt, instinctively, that she should be able to do something, that maybe her magic would have some answer-- she reached inside herself, but neither spell at her disposal would help her here. The effects of the spells she knew were resolutely internal, only towards herself.

Shit.

She wished she knew something to do to help- some herb mix, some healing trick. Some small part of her mind filed this thought away; perhaps someone, somewhere, could teach her.

But right now she had a cub who she'd accidentally rendered extremely distraught. "I'msorryi'msorry!" she said, rushing forward, one paw extended as if to touch the other cub soothingly, but she didn't quite make contact. She didn't know if the other cub would want to be touched, if that would make things worse. "Are you okay? Can I do anything? I didn't mean to make you upset!" Lei was still very young, and a very sensitive child-- some mix between empathetic and generally sweet and well-meaning. Her own eyes were watering slightly, but mostly she was concerned for Asgina.

She didn't know what to say to the statement "Asgina is broken", so she reacted with her gut, shaking her head deeply. "No no." she answered, emphatically. "/Not/ broken. Just different." Broken was something that happened to things that didn't think. Stones and golems and that sort of thing. Not sapients.

@Asgina

Image by Banshee/xx-Starry@DA; Table by me; Pattern from Dinpattern.com

Asgina panted from all the stress, slowly calming down enough to make some sense of what Lei was saying to hir. Shi watched the expression of the other and saw the potential tears in her eyes and flattened hir ears with worry. Shi pushed hir head up under the paw Lei almost touched hir with, expressing that the contact was not a problem for hir.

As Lei explained shi was only different, not broken, Asgina decided to show hir the only ailment shi really knew of hirself; the mental illnesses were something shi may very well never pick up on. Who knew now. It wasn't important though.

Asgina belly crawled a little closer to Lei then laid on hir right side and rubbed a paw over hir left ear, as if shi were thoroughly annoyed with what was inside of it. "Asgina's ear! Ear! Ear, ear, ear!" she rubbed it more. Hir tail flailed, discomfort wrinkling hir face.

@Lei

Lei wore her concern on her face-- she was comforted, slightly, that it wasn't her what caused it, but only slightly-- Asgina was still upset, which was the primary cause of her own upset. She smiled gently when Asgina nuzzled her paw, and then nuzzled Asgina's shoulder encouragingly.

"Ear?" Lei repeated, her voice confused. She didn't know anything about balance or the internal arrangement of ears-- didn't know that such issues came from imbalances therein. But she did know about wax buildup and, vaguely, infection, and peered curiously at Asgina's ears, the one she was messing with. "Your ear hurts? I can groom it, if you like." That might be a good call anyway-- grooming was a sign of comfort and affection between cats, and Asgina looked like she could use that.

The cool blue not-quite-alpenglow of Polaris in the distance drew Lei's occasional glance, but no golems seemed forthcoming down passageway, which she always realized with some sense of relief. "Where do you live?" she asked, vaguely worried; Asgina did not seem the kind to be make a quick escape if Golems did, in fact, come calling.

@Asgina

Coding: Cecil ♥ Image: Matt ♥ Pattern: Dinpattern.com

Grooming? Asgina had groomed herself as well as she could, but wasn't all that great at it. The idea of someone else grooming her - especially that annoying, bothersome ear - really appealed to her. She purred and wiggled the tip of her tail as she laid before Lei. Her paw rubbed at her ear, then looked up at Lei again. "Groom!" she chimed. Lei seemed a bit worried about something else, too. Asgina wasn't sure what it could be, though. The mention of home made her smile and tail thud against the ground. "Asgina is home," she purred. She was born in this tunnel and it was all she knew, right now. The noises of golems were far in the distance if there at all. She had yet to see one herself, thankfully. ---- "Speech." OOC: @Lei