Chapter 5 Understanding Essence
Khall rolled over, comfortable. She figured that rolling in the dirt should help her figure out what would help her form her stone core essence, and she liked it anyways, so it was good twice over! With a chuff of contentment, she turned to look at the tiny exit from her little burrow. A few embers drifted by every so often, but they didn't light up the dark den, just how Khall wanted–too much light reminded her of the death river. She rolled back onto her back and scratched her scales against the dirt, making herself comfortable as she looked out through that little, mostly collapsed hole to observe the smoky skies outside.
The scent of blood was thick in here and, despite herself, Khall found herself pulled from trying to look out of her comfortable home. What with the den mostly being closed off from any moving air, and the splatters of blood from her hunt that had simply crusted where they'd fallen, blood was all that she could scent nearby. Tufts of fur, claws, and teeth were left over from the lavaline and lay scattered around the small room. The rest of the corpse had already been consumed in its entirety. Khall deliberately pushed the fur into a pile and laid her head down on it, trying to make a comfortable spot to lay, but the earth itself was better than the fuzzy inconsistency of fur, dreadful stuff that it was. She shifted back and forth, trying to find a position to lay in where she could finally get comfortable, but no matter how she twisted and turned, Khall couldn't find a good spot. Finally, with a groan, she rose to her feet, walked to the exit, and began to clear her path out.
Not long had passed since Khall had finished chomping the last of the bones down and settled comfortably down onto the ground, but the supernaturally comfortable aura of the place was now something that demanded her attention. This need to investigate wasn't something that had come from her mind… she thought. Maybe. It was hard to say in things like this. Now that she thought about it though, Khall definitely had wanted to investigate the bush and the stone at its trunk since she'd arrived, but the cursed lavaline that wouldn't just give up its life had kept her from it. Even though it hadn't wanted to, it now filled her belly, so, finally, happily, Khall finished clearing out the partially reburied exit and approached the base of her new home's crowning bush.
The bush itself was quite pretty, so much better than the glowing death river or the featureless incline that marked the rest of this land, and with the addition of the occasional sparks and glowing ash that filtered through the bush's branches… they were simply breathtakingly beautiful in their own right, so say nothing of the bush's beauty when added to the sparks. Just the right amount of glow, without the blinding light of the river or the static, oppressive darkness of the sky, all combined with the magnificence of her bush. The sparks were like the stars that she instinctively knew about and respected, even though she couldn't see them.
Shaking herself, Khall focused on the stone at the base of her bush. Now that she approached it, this stone was the origin of the aura that was so wonderful about this area. Somehow, it was the source of the clearer air in the area, the not-quite scent, the improvement to everything! Khall understood it was arcanite, and this was much more than the 600g she needed for her evolution! Excited, Khall began to gently excavate it from its little nest in the roots of the bush. After all, if it was out under the bush, then other things like the cowardly lavalines could try to steal it! And she knew all about having her things stolen by those wretched things. Every one of them was born a thief. Every one of them!
It took a surprisingly long time to extract the arcanite from the bush without wholly shredding through the bush, and she couldn't destroy that, it wouldn't be right! The arcanite was surprisingly light, about half as heavy as the same amount of earth would have been. The stone glittered slightly in light, and, on top of being light, had a strange… immobility? to it. She knew that was strange, since if something was light, then it could be moved easy! But instead of being easy to move, it wanted to stay where it was. Khall couldn't understand what was it that made arcanite so different from any other she had seen, but she could simply understand that it was special and deserved special treatment. That was enough for her.
Carefully, gingerly, Khall lowered the stone into her burrow. It was much to big for her to carry in her jaws, so instead she was forced to roll it with one of her forelegs while hopping along with her other three legs. She quickly dug a little divot in the corner furthest from the entrance, and partially buried the arcanite there. Then, happily, she laid her head down on the stony pillow and rubbed into it comfortably. It would be a perfect pillow, much better than the squishy, weird fuzz from the lavaline! Thinking of that attempted assassin, Khall realized that its fur was still in here with her and her arcanite. The mere thought of the fur from the lavaline contaminating her arcanite had her immediately clear out all the gross, inedible leftovers from the den.
Once she had completed her cleansing of her home, Khall returned to her arcanite pillow and laid her head on it before chuffing to herself contentedly, the happy little noise filling the space. Then she shifted position. And again. And again. And finally she gave up on using the rock as a pillow, since it was still a rock and not anywhere near comfortable when compared to the loamy, soft soil. Khall didn't want the arcanite to be offended, so she made sure to give it a couple of loving pats before turning away from the rock.
With a couple of quick movements Khall made a small pillow of soil so that she could lay looking at the arcanite while she pondered the question of what a core essence was. It was… something… in the middle. Of… everything?
It didn't take long for her to give up. She was good at attacking and killing things, good at digging, and most everything else… but she was no good at thinking about things. With a frustrated shake of her head, Khall rolled over onto her back and slowly pushed her snout down into the soft-packed soil. It smelled good, just like good healthy soil should. But not of stone, far from it. The dirt that she'd hatched in was more stony than this soil, but even that didn't seem to be something that could be called a stone essence. So, she decided to find some stone. But where?
Khall was nervous to leave her bush and arcanite alone, so instead she ranged out around them, looking for a rock while still staying close enough to the bush to be able to see it and the entrance to her home. It didn't take too long to find a rock that was at least more than a pebble so she picked it up in her mouth to investigate, but, suddenly–Khall perked her head up, looking around. Something was different, but what could it be? Quickly, she trotted back to her home and looked out into the surrounding plain while still standing in front of the hole that led to her home and arcanite. Nothing moved, but she couldn't trust it. She slowly circled the bush, looking in every direction, yet there still was no sign of anything being out of place or at all different. With there being nothing to react to, Khall hissed her threat to the surroundings before retreating to her burrow with her rock and the arcanite.
There wasn't anything noteworthy about this rock, it was just large enough to barely fit in her mouth. She couldn't close her jaws while carrying it, and that was hard, but that wasn't anything special. It was hard, rocky… stony… Khall sighed. This didn't help at all. It was just a rock! It's hard, and rough, and a rock. How, by the stars above, would this help? She hissed at it, slapped it with her tail (which hurt), and licked it, and nothing happened. She tried to make friendlier noises at it, cuddle it, or ignore it. There was no understanding, no growth, no "Divine Path" or anything. Stupid Void-created rock. Even then, with her most vile and mean-spirited insult, the rock didn't react.
Khall let out a mighty sigh, then, as was her tendency when bored, she began to dig as she tried to think. Her burrow could benefit from being expanded, and Khall wouldn't mind some more space to stretch. With a heave of her forelegs, Khall plunged her claws deep into the loamy earth at the end of the burrow, just next to where she had partially buried the arcanite. The earth gave way under her powerful claws and efforts and before long, she was pushing the mound of dirt up and out of the burrow. Adding to the pile of previously excavated earth was strangely pleasant–Khall could see the progress as she made it, a physical representation of the good work she'd begun.
Slowly, moment by moment, trip by trip to the surface, Khall found her mind consumed by what were the differences between stone and soil and dirt. Was it the hardness? Not really, since there were plenty of hard things, and stone breaks, just like soil and dirt. It was just harder to break. Was it the shape? No, you could break stones and some were big and small, and when a stone got small enough, it made dirt. Was it the weight? No, arcanite was light, but it was definitely stone. Thinking of her arcanite, she happily rubbed her head against it as she walked past it again on her way back to the bottom of her expanding burrow.
Khall returned to the bottom of her burrow, now several body lengths deeper than before, though so narrow it was nearly impossible for her to turn around, and resumed digging as she tried to think about this essence and what could make it a "stone". Was it the way it–before the thought could complete itself in Khall's mind, she felt her core essence, something she hadn't begun to understand before this second, begin to form around a word that settled into her being without her knowing or understanding. But now, that word made sense and began to settle into her core.
Immutability. The core essence of a stone is to be immutable, to not change. A stone can break, be moved, but not be changed. A stone remains a stone regardless of what you do to it. While she could feel that this was only the beginning of her understanding of "stone", it was more than enough to begin to consolidate her core essence into a stony version of itself.
Khall very nearly sang with excitement as she forced herself to think more deeply on the information embedding itself in her mind. What seemed to be a line of data filled her mind as Khall felt her very being begin to morph, to become more unyielding, more solid, more immutable. The word felt foreign yet right in her mind, and she knew that she was developing her stone core essence. Excited, Khall rushed to turn around to begin her return up to her arcanite to begin her evolution to a Stonescaled Juvenile Drake, every one of her steps sinking more deeply into the soil underfoot, her very self growing denser, harder, stronger. What would be different about her? How much stronger would she become once she was able to evolve to–
Something wasn't right. There was light flickering down the path towards the depths where she was currently tunneling. It took Khall only a moment to realize that there shouldn't have been anywhere near as much light in her home, and immediately she sprang into action. Sprinting, her steps thundering in the enclosed tunnel, Khall came up into the main section of the burrow and saw a massive lavaline, more than twice as large as any other she had ever seen, hunched over the arcanite, a blue mist filtering from the stone and into the fuzzy, cowardly, horrible, Void-born parasite! It turned to her and brazenly hissed a challenge right in her face as it continued to grow larger while glowing veins pulsed visibly under its skin.