Zevruu walked back into the familiarity of Orion. He winced slightly from some of the pain on his shoulder and back, as well as his ankles. He went toward one of the buildings and began digging. Soon, he came across the familiar sight of the baubled stone. He picked it up and walked backwards a bit before setting it down, examining it.

Light shone through the cracks, giving it a near eternal glow. He found himself mesmerized by it, as he usually did. How had Macawi done that? Why couldn't he do that? He sighed. He wanted to bauble his necklace, to show what he could do if given the chance. The spell wouldn't come in much handy, but...maybe he could collect items and bauble them? The thought seemed to spark something in him. Maybe he could do that! He already had a stone and a necklace. Why not collect other things? And as soon as he got the bauble spell, he'd bauble them all! He'd keep them all right here, by this building, in the exact same place he kept his stone when he went traveling. He didn't want to lose it, after all.



"Speech" l 'Thoughts'

Tuck had only been to Orion once or twice before, but every time he came here, he found himself wishing that he had a way to get up close to the “stars” overhead — those glittering milky crystals that dotted the ceiling. Today, he was so mesmerized by them that he was hardly watching where was going or seeing much around him. So when he scented Cat in the air, he paused in mid-step, and jerked his tiny head around, searching for the source. Up ahead of him was a cat with large ears that seemed to be staring at something on the ground.

Tukluk, who would have once been cautious in this kind of situation, was filled with an overwhelming sense of curiosity. What was the cat looking at? Could he have it? He wanted it, whatever it was! “Hey!” he said loudly to the serval. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” He approached confidently, not caring about his safety for the moment.

Words: 161 @Zevruu

Zevruu had started to examine his necklace when a voice stopped him. Someone was nearby? When did they get here? Had they been watching? He turned and saw...someone. They were tiny, so tiny. They also looked vaguely familiar. Had he been in the battle against the rats?

"U-um," he started, "hi. I'm looking at...uh, this stone. A-and my necklace." He shifted his paws and put one on his stone. He didn't really want it to be taken away from him. He loved looking at it, and he wanted it to stay with him. But he traveled a lot, and needed to have somewhere to put it. Somewhere no one else had seen.

But now someone had seen. Would they take it from him? He hoped not.

"Speech" l 'Thoughts' | @Tukluk

The serval placed a paw over the top of his glowing stone, but it was too late. Tuck had already seen it, and was already mesmerized by the glow. “Ooo…” he murmured, mostly to himself, and stared wide-eyed at the beautifully lit up object. “Where’d you get that?” He hopped a bit closer, still unaware of the possible danger of provoking someone so much bigger than him. Had the Cat also mentioned a necklace? “A necklace?” Tuck tore his eyes from the warm glow of the stone. “Does the necklace glow too? Can I have it?” The question came out of his mouth before he even thought to stop it — not that he would have thought to stop it regardless. “Can I have both of them? Where did you get them? Why is the stone glowing?” Boy, was he full of questions today!

Words: 144 @Zevruu

Zevruu did not like the sound of his voice. Was he going to take it? "I, um. It was given to me. The, uh. The necklace doesn't glow. Not yet. A-and no. I'd...rather you didn't have it." He shifted, trying to hide the stone from view. Not that it would do much good. He already knew it was there. "N-no. You can't have it, s-sorry. The, uh, stone was given to me and the one who g-gave it to me made it glow. The n-necklace I got from fighting off some r-rats." Now that he thought about it, the marmoset had been there then, hadn't he? He had also fought off a rat, and gotten a reward. He wondered where it was.

"Speech" l 'Thoughts' | @Tukluk

Tuck pursed his lips in annoyance at being told he couldn’t have either of the pretty, shiny objects. He hopped even closer, now no more than a foot away from the serval. But then he looked up into the cat’s face, seeing how nervous the Gembound was. Tuck glanced down at the shiny things again, noting how protective he was of them, and decided right then that stealing just… wasn’t for him. Sure, he wanted those things — badly — but what if he made the serval cry or something? That would just make him feel awful! But he couldn’t just act like he’d had a change of heart. That would make the marmoset look weak. Nah, he had to play it off like the shiny things no longer interested him.

Tuck rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, and then nonchalantly moved away from the cat. “Well, whatever,” he said. “I don’t need your stupid shiny things, anyways. I’ll find my own shiny things!” He paused, thinking back to everything the cat had just said. “Wait, did you say someone made the rock glow? With Magic, you mean?” Now he was interested all over again, but for a totally different reason. “I can’t make stuff glow… Hmm…”

EDITING AN ENDING:

Tuck was so lost in thought about making stuff glow with magic that he wandered off without realizing it, accidentally leaving the serval sitting there by himself... Oops.

[Exit Tuck]

Words: 206+ @Zevruu