#I most likely fucked up the pronunciations cuz I just frankensteined the words they're made of lol

[rivertheshimmerscale]

I needed to practice my writing! It's not very good! Everyone's gonna ignore this but I'm posting it anyways and I don't know how to use under the cut, whoops...

Luminomorpha: The Voice Trial

Takes place about 560 years ago, before the Bonded Genocide began.

Needle grunted and automatically unsheathed his claws. They glittered like obsidian, curved as thorns and sharper than razors. A dark russet Gahailiawk stalked back and forth in front of him. Her hackles were raised and lips pulled back in disgust to reveal tightly interlocking pointed teeth.

She stopped and jabbed her tail at him accusingly.

"You're not allowed here!" she barked.

"What, so our House is being downright excluded now? What happened to the Order?" Needle lashed his own tail.

"This is a Disconnected-only meeting! Word of both Sovereign Day-Leap and Sun-Ripple."

He was slightly taken aback. He paused for a moment while he struggled for a response. "How should I know you're not lying? Why are they here?"

She gave Needle a dark look. "We're discussing what to do with the accused," she said in a lower voice, "and it's none of your busi-."

"Only accused? We all know what he did!" the Oakarii spat. The Gahailiawk seemed surprised at his reaction.

"My sibling was one of the murdered, I think it's definitely my business to see to that thing's punishment!"

She scoffed. "The only reason your sib's dead is 'cause they stuck their snout into the wrong situation. Hah! Just like you right now!"

"RRRRGH! I don't have TIME for this!" Needle leaped at her and she swung her tail at his head. Luckily for him, her barbed tailtip was harmlessly folded down. The blunt appendage thwacked against his skull as his claws dug into her fur. She headbutted his chest and easily wriggled away. Fuzz was snarled on her three head spikes.

"Are you crazy?!" she spat. Her tail barb clicked open. "First that bloody lunatic and now you, our House is gonna be out for Bonded blood if this keeps up!" She bared her teeth and her orange eyes glittered dangerously.

Needle laughed in disbelief. "We're on the same side right now! Why do you want to stop me? Is there something else I should know?!"

The Gahailiawk opened her mouth to retort, but another sound split the air in the same moment. It was a howl of pain. Forgetting the dispute, Needle spun around and sprinted past her. She didn't even try to stop him.

Contrasting the shriek, a low chorus of chanting started to rise as he broke through the mess of plants. Motionless furred bodies were scattered all over the clearing. Gahailiawk and Fyrimr: Disconnecteds. All of them were facing a single center point and had their heads lifted to the sky. The perfect harmony of the song, while wordless, seemed to drown out all the other sounds as if it was coming from inside Needle as well.

A voice ceremony, he thought. His heart twisted. The ordeal was rarely used and horrifically grotesque... but well deserved in most cases.

No one looked at him as he slunk through the rows of Disconnecteds; they were too distracted singing. It seemed the trance had overtaken them.

A tall boulder loomed at the center of the circle, covered in moss, lichen, and tiny neon orange growths. On the top and on either side of the rock, two creatures sat outlined by the moons behind them. They weren't singing and appeared much grander than the creatures on the ground.

One was a Gahailiawk. Her ears were tilted forward intently and her tail curled over her paws. Her belly was light pink and yellow. Her back was a shade of blue barely a smidgeon from black, along with lighter reddish stripes going from her forehead to tail tip. Even with her front in shadow, her unblinking eyes gleamed with a light of their own. This was Day-Leap.

Next to her was a Fyrimr, form sleek and fur shining. He was mostly pale yellow, but his paws, tail, and snout faded to a dark red. Like all Fyrimr, his snout was longer and narrower than that of a Gahailiawk's, tilted up with disdain. Four ebony horns curved from the back of his skull, the longest two looping back towards his flattened ears. Spikes ran from his neck to tailtip, which hung behind the boulder and out of Needle's sight. Sun-Ripple.

He towered over Day-Leap by nearly a third of her height. Granted, Gahailiawks were the smallest of the luminomorphs, but Day was probably as tall as most Oakarii. That made Sun extremely tall.

Directly below the Alphas, another Gahailiawk and an unrecognizable luminomorph were cast in shadow. The Gahailiawk was sitting upright as the other creature crouched in front of it, quivering. Needle took a step forward. That's who killed them. Some unrecognizable feeling squirmed in him. He dug his claws into the ground and hissed.

The form had already sunk lower yet, twitching convulsively. Another hollow, gurgling whine rose and then abruptly cut off as the thing jerked away from the other luminomorph. It whipped around as the Gahailiawk lifted his head expressionlessly.

The chanting suddenly stopped - now the ceremony was almost finished.

The white creature was obviously an Oakarii. It seemed to be stunned amidst the silence - its tail and bushy mane were bristling but its actual body was completely still.

Then the chorus started again with a higher and more desperate note. All of the Disconnecteds stood up and began to slowly march in a circle around the clearing. Their heads bobbed from side to side with the song, teeth bared in the tiniest of sinister grins. That snapped the spell.

The white Oakarii became animated again and scrambled towards the marching creatures in Needle's direction.

Although Needle stood behind several creatures, he took a cautious step backward.

The nameless Oakarii stopped clumsily, staring with wide, rolling, pained eyes, one yellow and the other brown. Four red streaks stretched from his upper and lower eyelids and across his face. The patterns were the same shade of red as blood, but they definitely weren't. Actual blood stained his chin and throat, but he had no visible wounds.

He shook his head frantically, flinging saliva and more red all over. The nearby onlookers all skirted back to avoid the spray, but their steady movement and chanting remained unfaltered. The white Oakarii jumped back too. He seemed to be mouthing words, but he couldn't form anything beyond a string of growls and coughing as blood bubbled and dripped from his slack jaws. Choking on his own blood. I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it!

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Completely out of context stuff here explained without spoilers :D

Luminomorph: extraterrestrial animalistic creatures capable of complex thought slightly beyond that of humans, sexless, were modified by a protist (falsely dubbed luminite for its colony's tendency to form crystals) millions of years ago.

The Order: short for Omnauralux Order. The name of the government almost all luminomorphs (save for rogues or outcasts) live under. The Order is split into two Houses, Bonded and Disconnected.

House Bonded: creatures whose luminite contains a bond with a molecule, atom or state of matter. They can control the element in some ways. Not all creatures from the Bonded House are bonded, however, and it is quite rare to be so.

House Disconnected: those without bonds. Regardless, both types of luminomorphs are capable of developing into alphas.

"Sovereign" or Alpha: individual leaders of their respective clans. The only luminomorphs capable of (asexual) reproduction. Much like queen bees of their 'colony.'

Oakarii: (ō-kär-ē) "tree jumper" a lithe wolflike luminomorph with a mane and long tail covered in quills, big ears that often end on either a long tuft of fur if Disconnected or a bulbous stalk if Bonded. Retractable claws. House Bonded.

Kytiryx: (kī-tər-iks) "screeching wing" not mentioned. Reminiscent of an archaeopteryx or eagle, long feathered tail, two short fangs embedded in upper beak. House Bonded.

Gahailiawk: (ɡə-hālē-ôk) "???" a small catlike luminomorph with a long tail ending on a barb for climbing. Nonvenomous. Retractable claws, typically have 2 or more horns centered on their forehead. House Disconnected.

Fyrimr: (fī-rim-ər) "dangerous edge of the land" a doglike luminomorph with horns and spikes from their head to tailtip, long whiplike tail, rubbery paw pads for gripping stone, can see very far. House Disconnected.