it formed in the dark — there was nothing here now but darkness — yet still there seemed to be a luminous aspect to the surface. it grew, reaching, through the chasm of a doorway and sealed it. and then, as if waiting patiently for the days to end and the light to return, the chrysalis lay dormant. throughout the stone surface there seemed to be a series of spider veins, and in those veins pulsed the light of magicka.

gradually, the thing inside was formed.
it drank in the magic.
it became.
but it did not hatch.

the darkness was too much for it. like the flicker of an ember, or the steady dull burn of an old candle, the light of the magicka began to ebb — the light inside dimmed, transforming the stone from its pale, soft, inviting tones to something lifeless and gray. where once the entire surface had seemed to shine despite the obscurity (illuminating the bone spires around it with ease), now it was like the light came from behind a frosted glass.

then, days later, it was like that glass had grown too thick with fog. the light snuffed out.

and finally, it cracked.

time elapsed. there was no way to tell how long (twenty-four hours young), but it ticked on by, and still the darkness lingered. nothing disturbed the opening chrysalis in all that time. there wasn't even the tremble of the new body inside; there was only stillness among the bones.

but, gradually, the life seemed to return to the chrysalis. the crack deepened with a sudden chorus of crackling, shifting, cacophonous sounds.

from behind a sheet of sunstone (though the sun did not shine), the boy woke from his sleep, finally, and moaned a yawn through the darkness. it was at this precise moment that something changed. there was a flicker - almost like a pulse across the stone's surface - and the light appeared to catch in the boy's throat.

unaware, he swallowed, and the magicka drifted down - dying like another ember - until the light was gone again.

Tuck’s travels through the dark had taken him far and wide throughout the Cave, to places he hadn’t been to in cycles. In fact, he couldn’t remember now if he had ever been here — wherever here was. Of course, he couldn’t see very well, and running into massive bones… Bones… Ah, he had been here before. There was only one place he knew of in the whole Cave that had this many bones piled everywhere. He’d met Septiezal the snake here, and had healed the poor reptile of his self-inflicted (accidental) burns. But he didn’t think he’d been here since. So far, he’d had no reason to come back.

Up ahead of him, he heard a cracking, shattering sound, and just barely caught a glimmering light somewhere in a… a cave? A rock crag? He couldn’t tell because the light was so dim that he almost thought he’d dreamed it, but Garmer’s attention had been drawn to the light and the sound, as well, so clearly it had been real. Tuck’s Bonded kyte, Garmer, slowly picked his way forward, curiously, towards the source of the now gone light. Tuck followed him as best he could, slightly behind, for the kyte was much bigger than his tiny five-inch body.

There is a chrysalis here, Garmer said, reptilian tongue flicking out of his mouth like a snake’s.

Always more Gemlings, Tuck replied softly. He hopped his way closer, stubbing a toe on a bone he couldn’t see, pausing for a moment to his in pain and rub the injured foot, then continuing closer. “Hello,” he called out, using his sense of smell to aim his voice at wherever the young Gembound was. He smelled the warmth of another being close by, and that was all he had to go on in the dark. He knew the little one probably wouldn’t be able to understand him just yet, but he had found in his encounters with babies that they seemed to respond well to any kind of speech. Tuck, and Garmer nearby, waited.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."
This is Garmer.

tags: @Helios
notes: Hello! Didn't want to see anyone having to thread with themselves for too long. Also, I was trying to be vague about where Helios' chrysalis is since that wasn't described, really. And because it's dark. So... yeah, I hope I didn't mess anything up. XD
words: 342

OOC:I'm thinking of Canis as a big hedge-maze of bones and rocks, and the chrysalis filled in one of the paths and blocked a route like a door might block a hallway. :D

The creature's eyes remained closed. Its body, curled as it might have been in the womb, was mounted inside of the chrysalis at an awkward angle. But the cracked rock face of the protective barrier had begun to fall away with the absence of the magicka - a chunk lifted off and fell, crumbling, when the newborn bupped its head upon the other side. It was the crumbling sound of the sunstone that made the child sort of.. twitch.

Then, when a sound slipped in through the cracks, the canine's batty ears shifted atop its head; although the rest of it was tucked neatly together, the ears were large indeed, and chose to stand with sickle-curves atop his bowed head. With a little push of his sleepy face against the rock, more of the sunstone fell away - and the boy's nose poked out, sniffling at the dust, and then he was caught by the autonomic urge to yawn.

Unlike other newborn gem-beasts, this one had a full set of teeth already. His body seemed to be cramped within the shell that housed it, having grown too quickly or perhaps for too long while the darkness reigned outside. The yawn pulled out of him and the flare of his magicka - flickering in fits and starts like a flint hitting steel - did not manage to ignite this time; he was a wayward traveler without the guiding light.

There! There in the dark, somewhere, was the sound of a crumbling, cracking chrysalis, followed by… a yawn? Even though he couldn’t see the Gemling who had yawned, it nevertheless caused Tuck to yawn in return, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. Garmer then also yawned, and the marmoset laughed. He couldn’t help it. Here were three Gembounds in the dark, yawning together. How silly! He shook himself afterwards, feeling suddenly sleepy. This constant darkness had been messing with his sleep cycle and it was really grating after a while. The longer the darkness persisted, the more worried he became.

Without knowing exactly where the Gemling was, Tuck’s only real option in the darkness was to repeat a gentle, “Hello?” There was a question in his voice, though he knew that babies didn’t understand language at first. Well… some did, but not all. Still, it was the only thing he could think to do. He could still smell the warmth of the body, and took a few more stumbling steps forward, but decided that he was probably close enough. Besides, what was the point of getting closer if they couldn’t see each other anyways?

Garmer stayed off to what he figured was “the side” so that if the child burst through completely from its chrysalis, there wouldn’t be a giant reptile in the way. But Canis was rather like a large room of corridors, so there wasn’t much space to move around in, really. The corridors were big, or small, depending, and they had to be careful not to run into the “walls.” So they just stood still and waited for the child to do something else…

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."
This is Garmer.

tags: @Helios
notes: I am so sorry. I’ve had no muse for weeks now, and then school started and I haven’t had time. T_T It took me like a day and a half to write this post because I still have no muse.
words: 278