Over the course of her first night awake, Helle had managed not only to find a wall (which wasn't particularly difficult, considering that she'd ran into quite a few), scramble up said wall till she found a niche (which, as it turns out, ended up being a windowsill of a ramshackle, dilapidated stone building), all the while pulling up this very lovely scrap of cloth in her beak that as much bigger than she was to settle herself down in on the shelf. This was, of course, before and after meticulous grooming sessions to keep all her baby feathers in check and get rid of any pesky dust motes that'd clung to her on the journey.

She'd rested incredibly comfortably, settled and wrapped in that nice swatch of cotton, and now that she was awake once more (one could hardly call it morning when it was still lightless in the cave room), she decided she was feeling hungry.

Having gotten herself down safely from her perch, she decided to scramble around for something to eat. Seven had mentioned that whatever kind of being they both were ate either bugs or seeds, and Helle longed for whatever a seed was. The word itself just sounded so appetizing! Surely its reality must come close.

So while she scratched at the ground and wandered, she began to practice her speech. After speaking with the wonderfully eloquent Seven, she felt inadequate! Her grammar was all wrong when she spoke, and, my, let's not even think about that high pitched, infantile voice she spoke with. So she cleared her throat and said phrases like, "Six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards," or, "Send toast to ten tense stout saints' ten tall tents," (she was particular horrible with making an 's' sound consistently) or, "Two tried and true tridents."

Of course, all of these phrases came out horribly mangled in her clumsy newborn mouth, but she carried on besides.

When she finally did find a seed-like thing under her clawed foot, it startled her so much that something positively tingled along the back of her neck! It shuddered all the way through her and down her foot, till something snaked out through her little toes and around her leg.

Of course, you can hardly blame the young chickling for letting out a shrill cry and running the other direction behind a rubble pile. Nor that she stayed there, in the dark, her young bird's heart hammering against her rib cage, wondering what that even was.


@Zeno

Another dark day in the formerly beautiful cavern of Orion. As much as Zeno wished for the stars to burn bright again and shine down upon the mysterious city he had learned to adapt. Food was plentiful for now, and with his relentless training he was well on his way to being able to investigate them for himself. Today was no different from any other day as Zeno glided across the landscape, having started from a tall tower and pacing himself as he tried to get as much air time as possible.

Sounds came from below, a strange cascade of words and syllables from something so small it hadn't even registered at all to his rudimentary echolocation. Zeno's altitude was falling quickly now, and while he wasn't quite exhausted yet he felt he was getting near the limit to his ability to stay afloat, so it only made sense to descend near the unknown creature. If it was as small as it seemed then it likely wouldn't try to eat him, and if its disjointed but valid words were any indication it was likely host to a conscious mind.

The small bat landed a short distance away from the source of the sound, audible clicks rapidly firing off from his wings as he neared his target allowing him to touch down without crashing. Zeno folded his wings and began to crawl toward the sound, his large eyes taking in what tiny amount of information they could in the pitch blackness.

Just as he got near and was about to introduce himself to the figure a small... something sprouted out from the ground underneath it, prompting it to scream out with such ferocity that Zeno froze and screeched out loudly in accord.

He had mentally prepared himself for many strange and horrible possible things, but nothing in his life experiences so far had given him reason to brace himself for whatever that was that emerged from the ground suddenly.

@Hellebore

It wasn't until much after the fact that something occurred to Helle's frightened mind: it sounded like there was a secondary sound after she had cried out, a sound she'd ignored in her flight away from the strange occurrence. She raised her head over the rubble pile (a mostly useless gesture to her sightless eyes) and flapped her little wings.

"Hullo?" She called out. "Someone there?" She crawled out away from the pile, stumbling on a pebble as she did so. "A thing happened! Got all tingly, and, and, something happened, came out! Of my seed!" She made an upset chirping sound and took a few more paces in some direction she hoped a person might be. "What happened?"

She was still too scared to go near the seed to find out what'd occurred, and she hoped the stranger would know. Unbeknownst to her, she was facing the complete and utter opposite direction that the stranger actually lay.



@Zeno

It took only a brief moment for Zeno to gain control over his mind once more. The strange entity which had arisen from the ground did not seem to be acting aggressively and the stranger still seemed harmless. "Hello!" he called back as the figure addressed him. Strange though, it wasn't actually looking at him. Could it not see in this darkness? Yes it was much harder to make anything out than it had been when there had been light, but he was close enough that he could see them with relative ease.

To see her with relative ease. Vocal tones indicated she was a female of her species. Bird specifically, but what type of bird he wasn't sure. Tacitus had been able to see him, but he had been a different kind of avian than this one, much larger. Zeno gathered that he was just about the same size as this one.

"I saw something grow up from below you before you fled. It doesn't seem dangerous, just strange." He chanced an advance, moving near the location of the formerly small seed. No more movement from it, but something looked familiar. Had it grown? Did seeds really grow that fast?

"My name is Zeno, by the way. I know it's probably difficult to see me with the lights of this place gone, but I mean you no harm."

@Hellebore

The wayward child quickly turned around, sudden nervous at such a vast misjudgement of placement. Some of her feathers stood up, and, in a ploy to collect her wits, she groomed underneath her little wing and patted down her forehead, as if she had meant to do all of that.

They introduced themselves as Zeno, and she nodded and replied, "'M Helle. S'nice to meet you." Then she made a tiny little bow, hoping the other could see the effort for politeness in the dark. Strange - Seven said she meant no harm when she came along as well. Was that a usual thing to say? Were there things that hurt others? She rather hoped not.

"What'dyou mean, grow?" She asked, her head tilting. "Do seeds grow? Did I grow it? Why? Can you make a thing grow? Can you make a tingling? What'dyou mean, harm? No harm? Why?" She took a breath in, a pause to her relentless questions. On occasion, she hopped towards the Zeno, hoping to see at the very least their silhouette. "Why no lights? Do you know?"

@Zeno

Zeno returned the bow, but suspected it was a useless gesture. Even now as the bird looked in his direction she didn't seem to be looking directly at him. Either she was shy or couldn't see anything in these conditions. Or both, one was not mutually exclusive with the other.

"I feel like seeds do grow, Helle. I saw them in my dreams before here."

A few tiny speck of brown light appeared on the ground near the plant, appearing to try to take on some kind of shape as they blinked out of existence and reformed constantly. Zeno's eyes, however, were closed as he thought back to the ever-fading dreams to try to confirm his suspicions.

The small cluster of struggling lights shot upwards, forming a column until exploding outward near the top with another cluster of twinkling green motes. At this point the odd feeling in Zeno's chest and the change in local lighting grew enough to catch the bat's attention, leaving him to open his eyes.

Another small screech escaped his maw as to his eyes the entire area was lit up in a way he hadn't seen since the day he was born. The lights, already having a tenuous grasp on existence all fizzled out like a pyrotechnics display.

"I guess... that answers your question about light." the small bat stammered out, completely confounded by the display. Where had those lights appeared from?

@Hellebore

She vaguely saw motion - a dab, a blur - and assumed it was from Zeno. Her eyesight as a chick wasn't much to brag about under the best of circumstances, and in this lack of light, she was very nearly blind. There were no phosphorescent mushrooms here in this dusty ruined city, nor light from the ceiling above. She knew no other alternative at this point in her short life.

They said that seeds grew in their dreams, and she perked up at that. So others had dreams before they first woke up, like she did? Did that mean everyone woke up exactly like she did, and in the same frustrating circumstances? She was about to open her beak to continue her slew of questions when tiny motes of light arrested her attention, and she watched them flicker and grow with wide eyed fascination. The growth felt familiar, like she should know the vision it inspired by heart, even though she'd never really seen it before. It felt right to see the lights shift upwards in a cacophony of color, to fizzle out and scatter.

She caught a glimpse of Zeno before the lights went out, and had to take a minute to register the strange form they had. She blinked at what they said, shedding the sense of wonder that kept her mute, and whispered, "You did that, didn't you? You...tingled? for the lights."

It was an utterly brilliant revelation - that someone could make lights, and she could....make something grow? It was stunning, it was wonderful, it was....magic.



@Zeno

Magic. That was the word that appeared in Zeno's mind as the lights finally fizzled into the aether. Had he done that? In his mind he had reflected back to a vision of an acorn lying dormant until it sprang up into the form of a great tree, and he could have sworn that the magic before him had tried to replay the vision in lights. It was too too weak though, there wasn't enough power behind it to sustain or even fully form the image.

"Amazing." he softly exclaimed to the dim scene before him. "I think it may have been me. It was different from what you did though why was that?"

He had to try again, had to confirm his theory. Zeno took a deep breath and attempted to let go of all the rampant thoughts and questions running through his mind, focusing his mental imagery on one singular scene, the most powerful memory he had.

As he did so, however a great pain started to clutch his chest, like he had breathed in twice as much air as his body could hold. A softened cry of discomfort escaped his maw as his concentration broke.

Too much.

The singular thought echoed through the small bat's mind as he softly thumped onto the floor, his vocalizations ended but his breathing hastened and his heart beating nearly twice as fast as it had been a moment before. His reign over his own thoughts weakened as a cacophony of reactions echoed through his skull. He should never do that again! No this was an amazing discovery. He just wasn't ready yet. Would he ever be ready? Could he practice to get better. No the pain would assault him again, avoid pain! Why avoid pain? Without it there could be no progress. He could try to avoid it though couldn't he? But what would he miss if he played it safe?

"I'm okay." he vocalized as soon as he could catch his breath again. His head was spinning as the overwhelming power that had gathered in his body started dissipating.

She nodded in reply and made an affirmative sound - if she didn't make the lights, of which she was absolutely certain, then it must've been them. There was no one else around, right? They were alone. Secondly, Zeno was quite right. The sparkling of colored lights was incredibly different than what she created, and such a thought fascinated her. What else was there? Would she meet others with vastly different gifts? Or were they alone in that respect as well?

Questions questions questions. There was a long pause as she mused over this, and Zeno was similarly silent, and it wasn't until she heard the sharp intake of breath and sound of pain that she realized they'd been trying to do something. What'd happened? There were no more lights, right? Was that what they'd been trying to do?

"Did it...hurt? Did the magic hurt?" She asked, concerned. Of course, they could've been trying something else, she would be none the wiser in the dark, but that was her first assumption. A word appeared in her mind, sharp and clear: backlash. As if she'd already known, and forgotten.

"....I'm sorry," she said after a while. It couldn't have been pleasant, but they said they were alright. "S'there something I can do?"

"Speech."

@Zeno

The pain was subsiding and soon Zeno was able to focus again. His careless actions had concerned Helle, this he could gather from the tone of her words. The small bat lifted himself to look at her and put a smile on his face, though he knew there was a good possibility she would not be able to see it in these light conditions.

"That was pretty unpleasant." he admitted honestly, "I don't think it's the magic's fault though. I tried to forcefully make a big spectacle with the sparkling light magic, but I don't think my body is big enough to hold that much."

It made some sense. The first time he'd used the magic it had been accidental, and not that powerful. Perhaps this would just be something he'd learn to control with time, yet another part of himself to master in this new life.

"I guess that makes two goals to work towards now; learn to fly so I can find out what happened to the lights and learn to create light on my own with this strange force inside."

He paused a moment shaking the last little bits of disorientation from his mind. "Thank you for your concern, Helle. Perhaps we can both work on finding the secrets to magic so it won't shock us with unpredictable results."