Asimona paced the cold, snowy nest, tail whipping and her wings occasionally giving a nervous twitch. Wyvern had been gone for too long. It had been over a day now. She had just went hunting, right? Although Asimona had offered to do the hunting for her, she had insisted on doing it herself this time. She didn't really understand why she had insisted so much, but there wasn't any harm in letting her go, or so she thought. She was growing worried now. Worried that she would be gone like Jotun was gone. Like Abeni was gone for long periods of time. She had one child left that stayed with her and she was drifting apart as well.

Eventually she stopped her pacing, standing as still as a statue for a moment before turning and flopping down in her own nest, rolling around the gems of her hoard. She didn't have much of a hoard, just a small pile of gems and coral and interesting rocks she had found. Of course, the most important in her collection were the ones she had found when she had created her children. She nudged them around, thinking and musing and wondering if she would ever see them again...her children...her family...all of them.

A sudden thought popped into her head. She could see them again. Perhaps she could even control them. Not her children, no, them. She heard them sometimes but she had grown good at ignoring them. But still...she felt like she wanted some kind of closure or something further to cope with it all.

She stood slowly and focused on one area. She'd start off easy. The light where she was looking began to shift. An image began to form, small, brown, lithe, until it was a hazy but unmistakable image of Sister.

Gea needed firewood.

Eridanus had plenty of dry trees.

So, naturally, she went to Eridanus. There were many other Caves with trees, but they tended to be swampy, such as Cetus, or just plain damp. So she chose the one where she could easily find dead wood without having to pry it off.

And she was right--she had barely entered Eridanus before she spotted a heap of dead twigs on the ground. Swooping down, she grabbed them in her talons, before whirling back to take them home--she wasn't strong enough, or big enough, to haul anything else.

Oh, that was by far one of the longest flights she had ever done.

Her wings ached, the muscles straining. The crucible was feeling heavier and heavier, but she was determined to bring it back. If she were physically capable, she would have cried at the sight of the alcove that she had made her own, and she tilted her wings to land.

It was clumsy, more of a controlled fall than anything, but she was finally able to drop the cup, allowing it to roll towards the furnace that she had repaired. It had been hard to make, but she was very proud of it. It wasn't beautiful, or elegant, but it worked, and that was enough. This nook had been chosen because it had enough of a hole in the top to funnel out the smoke produced by the furnace.

Ruffling her feathers, she began to doze, intending on sleeping before flying out again.

The bird was seeking.

She had studied, and worked, and studied some more. And finally, she felt ready to try. To make something that she would give another Gembound, to keep. Something beautiful, something elegant.

But she needed a bowl, first. A strong bowl, that would hold what she needed while it melted, that would withstand the hot, hot temperatures. And so she had gone down to Tunnel J to find exactly that.

Speech. Thought.

As gently as she could, the she-wolf set down the Jet, the Bloodstone, and the Chalcedony on a flat rock, not wanting to lose them. Her nose was good, and her eyes weren't too bad, but even she could easily lose Gemstones in such a massive Tunnel.

This Tunnel was nothing compared to Tunnel N but, she knew, she couldn't return. None of them could--their home had been compromised, was little more than a Tunnel, again. She was on the hunt for another home, and it looked like this would be it.

Really, she would rather have had a Cave but, well, she had lived in a Tunnel her whole life. She didn't know otherwise, but Mother must have had a reason, didn't she? So it was a Tunnel she looked for, and it was a Tunnel she found.

It was damp, and didn't seem too often traveled. The scents in the air, kept fresh with moisture, belonged to Lessers, and she could only find Lessers prints. This place seemed like it would be the perfect home for her wayward family.

She approached the wall of the cave, finding a soft spot in the dirt and beginning to dig. There needed to be a nook for her to put the gemstone, where it could be safely hidden as it nourished the life inside. Her paws moved rapidly, fighting to ignore the pain in her leg, and dirt flew behind her.

Wilder might have gotten a little sidetracked. It had been a while since the weird thing that was friends with the Collector had asked many gembounds to find it dye supplies. To be fair, Wilder had had other things on her mind at the time and hadn't really gotten around to actually finding anything.

But now she found herself in Polaris, with not much to do, and remembered her promise to find things. She hoped it wasn't too late! She bounced up from where she had been resting and immediately began sniffing the air and searching for something. She hoped she could find something pink! Or black like her!

Eventually she came across a little black feather and she happily scooped it up and trotted on.

As Wilder raced through Canis she went over her number of objectives in her head. It had been a long time, maybe a little too long, but she had at last finished the quest that the Collector had given her when she was barely a child.

The Children of Rot - she was one of them now. They lived in Cetus, they were secretive, and something happened with a tree. Bahamut was dormant in his tunnel, Astaroth as well. Kavish was missing, nowhere to be found. And the Bloodberries...they were gone. She had new on other things as well, like the meeting that had happened, although she wasn't sure she should reveal most of what had happened, and the Kingdom of Eridanus rising from the ashes of a war of some kind. There was much to say.

She stopped at the place where she had met the Collector before and meowed as loud as she could. "Collector I'm back! I have news for you at last!"

Well. This was it. The match that determined it all.

From the ledge on high, that lion-stag called his name and that of the large, white wolf, Kera.

Eythan strode into the arena without too much cockiness or swagger in his posture. Each paw simply moved in front of the last, carrying him to the now-familiar place he always stood when a match began. He adjusted his wings slightly, smoothed down his feathers, prepared. So far, the gryphon had done well.

He lowered his head. Better not fuck it up now.

And so, he waited.

This was a horrible idea, but Jayberry was no quitter.

So despite the aching of her ribs--she had checked and, thankfully, they were not cracked, just bruised--she trotted into the wrestling ring with her head high, muscles loose, looking for all the world as though she had no troubles at all.

Her ears twitched, and her tail stood high, as she waited for her next opponent to show their face.

@Imperia
@Glory
@Azizos