anamnesis (n.) - late 16th century: from Greek anamnēsis, 'remembrance'.
-CP-
To Amethyst, the sound of rumbling can mean so much.
It was a familiar sound for her. The same sound she would hear while crushing a big boulder to little, smaller boulders, and the same sound that warned her if a cliff was going to fall or not. Grinding, shaking, cracking and crackling.
It was the sound of rock. Of danger and safety, of home and prison.
But usually, she didn't hear rumbling when she wasn't the cause of it.
This was different, Amethyst could feel it. She stood up, shoulders brushing against the walls-slash-ceilings of her hole.
The twilight didn't provide much light for her to see with, even after she had stepped out and weak purple sunlight reached more of the valley. But the rumbling had been close, she knew.
"Hello...?" She called out. No one, and nothing answered her. Amethyst let out a breath. Good. She wasn't expecting anything anyways.
Until it happened again. The crunch of pebbles under a boot.
"Who's there?" She shouted, grabbing the handle of her whip and brandishing it in one fell swoop. Its tip licked at a nearby boulder, splitting it in half. "Show yourself!"
"Wait!" A doubling, dry voice yelped. Amethyst lowered her stance and waited with baited breath, eyes narrowing, wondering what the threat could be and if she'd have to fight to defend her home -
A blue hand shot up from behind a rock. Followed by an orange one, followed by a face with three mismatched eyes, two mouths and a small nose divided black and white. Around their neck, falling like a short gown or coat to their knees, was again, a black and white cloth of an undetermined pattern, billowing around the tall person's skinny frame.
They climbed over the rock, all four legs and four arms working together clumsily to scramble over roughly hardened dirt.
"Who-oh," Amethyst blurted out. "You're a mess, buddy."
The green eye in the middle rolled over to stare at her, managing to look baleful even with half of its eyelid missing. The amber and azure ones followed after a beat of delay.
"Than-nk, you, b-uagh-dee..." they uttered, appearing more confused the longer they spoke. They dropped to their back - most back, at least - legs, two freakishly long arms catching thrmselves onto the ground, the other two holding their malgamation of a head.
"Are you... Okay?" Amethyst asked, then caught herself and added, "Wait, Don't answer that. Just shake or nod your head. You know how to do that, lil' guy?"
"Not... Li'el," the thing, the creature, said shakily. But they moved their neck, once, twice in a nod. Their head wobbled dangerously, threatened to split apart.
Amethyst gasped, running forwards despite herself. "No! Okay, you don't have to do that either if you don't want to."
She stopped herself from putting her hands forward, eyes widening. Her head tilted up slowly, sporting a faint grimace. A whimper escaped her bow-shaped lips.
Up close, they were terrifying. Scraggly brown hair tumbled down their shoulders, exposing a bit of greyish scalp. However malformed their body was, she could see the powerful muscles underneath animalistic streaked skin. Their two mouths, one on their face and the other under their other jaw, grinned wolfishly at her. Or were they frowning?
Their light, long robes spread out in the cliff winds, billowing high into the air and well on either side. It gave the black translucent fabric life and motion - like lost spirits flocking behind this monster, peering around to take a peek at Amethyst.
"You're gem?" They looked down severely on her. "You're... Bad gem?"