[Freezair]

((This takes place while the world is still colorless.))

She clung to the jungle because it was one of the few places that still felt normal.

As it turned out, if the world was being stripped of almost all its colors and you could only pick one color to hold on to, and you happened to be a jungle, dark green was a pretty good color to pick. Everything around her glowed green: the leaves hanging overhead, the vines growing between the canopies, and the moss covering everything like a thick, furry blanket.

Only a few odd things here and there suggested anything was wrong. A curiously pale bird would fly by. A cracked log would show a gray interior. The water running in the stream was blacker than it should be.

But she kept her eyes straight ahead and pretended, just for a moment, everything was fine.

[Freezair]

Everything had been so tumultuous lately. First the war, now the colors... Avani couldn't remember the last time she'd just sat around a campfire with her friends slash family, swapping jokes for the fun of it all and eating a delicious stew.

Oh, she still told jokes in the evening. But she felt she had an obligation to, now. She was the jokester, the jester, the imp. The others looked towards her for a spark of brightness in the dark. Keeping the others happy wasn't just something she liked to do, it was her responsibility.

[Freezair]

But you've always felt an obligation, haven't you, Avani?

She'd always felt a compulsion to make others laugh. Whenever she saw someone sad and lonely, struggling with the weight of the world on their shoulders, she couldn't help but strut up to them and asking them what they called cheese that wasn't theirs, or if they'd heard about the Cavallion who walked into a bar.

It didn't really fix things. Jokes didn't change the world or cure any disease. But for just a moment, they drove the clouds away.

It was different, though, when the clouds were around you.

[Freezair]

Avani let out a long sigh. She had to admit to herself, this wasn't just about surrounding herself with green. She'd run away from the others just to have a chance to be sad for a while. She was a release for other people, and now she needed some of that release herself.

There was a great round stone here, just round enough to suggest it was not natural. Long ago it might have been the column of a temple or the base of a mighty statue. Now, though, it was a warm place for a Paragon who was feeling very lumpy inside to flop down and rest. Avani stretched herself across it and fell to her belly.

[Freezair]

A rumble spread along her belly.

"Shush, you," she grumped. "I fed you half an hour ago."

The rumble stretched out from her stomach, down her arms, and shook the nails in the tip of her claws.

"Hmmm?"

The prongs on the back of her head began to tremble. A should-have-been-red leaf drifted down in front of her face.

Avani sprung up.

A strange light--deep green despite how brilliantly it glowed--was emanating from the disc she'd sat down upon. And it was shaking violently.

[Freezair]

A small crack appeared in the middle of the stone. Then it began to widen. With a great, crashing sound, dark green light spilling out all the while, the stone slowly ground open. The two halves of the rock retreated into the earth, leaving behind a hole that burrowed deep into the earth.

The hole seemed dark. But a faint, greenish aura still seemed to emanate from it.

If Avani had been any kind of Paragon other than a Placid, she would have been too big to enter. But she ducked her head inside of it and placed her claws on the slick ramp of earth that lead down from it. She was exactly big enough to go inside.

[Freezair]

The cautious move would have been to move on. Tengel was absolutely full of ancient traps and archaeologist snares--apparently, the ancient people of the region did NOT like the idea of being grave-robbed.

But Avani had grown up on adventure. And she was nothing if not curious.

She slipped down the hole.

Roots like pale fingers hung down from the roof of the hole. The air smelled both rich and stale at once. The stone above had looked cracked and ancient, but this path wasn't as overgrown as she'd expected.

And though she soon moved away from the hole leading in, that faint, dark green light meant she could always see where she was going.

[Freezair]

Avani's eyes scanned the walls as she passed. But she saw no evidence of dart traps ready to skewer her. Nor did she see any tiles beneath her feet, ready to trigger swinging sawblades from the ceiling.

Despite its eerieness, the tunnel appeared to be just that: a tunnel. It was a plain, earthen corridor, totally unadorned and totally un-booby-trapped.

Avani was almost disappointed. But she was more confused than that. Why all the fanfare for something so banal?

And then she rounded a corner in the tunnel.

[Freezair]

Suddenly, the tunnel opened up into a cavern.

It was not exactly a massive cavern, but it could have held a Paragon much larger than her comfortably. It didn't, however. The roots had grown thick here, covering up the walls--but these walls, she could see, were properly adorned with ancient carvings, the way a secret temple room ought to be. Cracked old tiles overrun with moss covered the floor, and in the center of it all, there was a dais.

And on top of that dais, there was a Lucain.

[Freezair]

She looked as if she were sleeping peacefully. Her head rested comfortably on her front paws, and her tails were wrapped gently around her back ones. Her wingblades were lax and flat.

Her fur glowed a verdant green. She was the source of the light.

Something sizzled in Avani's stomach. She felt as if she had walked in on something private.

And yet something compelled her to step closer.

Am I supposed to give her a kiss? That's what you usually do with mysterious sleeping maidens. I'd have to let her down gently once she woke up--I don't think I'm her true love--but still, should I at least try to wake her...?

[Color Harvested]

[Freezair]

The branches on top of Avani's head shook. Her whole body tingled. There was a chattering rush of noise, and suddenly, leaves filled Avani's vision--colored leaves, thick and green as the full growth of summer, but with brilliant spring flowers of silky pink and royal purple interspersed throughout, and Avani looked down at her claws and saw flashes of a lighter green, one not often found in Tengel, crackling through her scales--

and then a brilliant dark eye on the Lucain fluttered open.