Clawed's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Clawed studied the telescope's controls, her paws sliding over knobs and levers. Each one adjusted focus or direction. She needed to understand how everything worked before she could search properly. The purple lens caught the morning light and cast a violet glow across her face. She twisted a dial and the view shifted left, then right. Buildings blurred past until she found empty sky. Her first real search would begin tomorrow, but today she had to master this tool. She practiced tracking clouds as they drifted overhead, keeping them centered in the circular view. The movements felt clumsy at first, but after an hour her adjustments grew smoother. By sunset, she could follow a bird across the entire sky without losing it. Clawed stepped back from the telescope and looked at her paws. They no longer trembled with uncertainty. She was ready to begin. The next morning brought dark clouds and distant thunder. Clawed climbed to the observatory roof and found the satellite dish powered down. The equipment needed energy she didn't have. She walked the perimeter and spotted a rod mounted on the corner—it glowed with a vibrant purple hue. The rod hummed as lightning flashed across the sky. A bolt struck the tip and the purple glow brightened. The satellite dish whirred to life below. Clawed's fur crackled with matching energy. The storms of Artiqua would fuel her search. She descended the ladder and returned to the telescope. The dish rotated above her head, scanning for signals. Her hunt for the floating crystal had truly begun. Days of searching taught her that the telescope alone wasn't enough. She needed a way to test what she found. Behind the observatory, she discovered a stone workspace with a mortar and pestle covered in frost patterns. The cold stone would let her grind samples safely before bringing them inside. She collected three purple rocks from different locations and crushed each one carefully. The first two crumbled into ordinary dust. The third released tiny sparks that matched the lightning on her fur. Clawed's heart beat faster. Not all purple stones were special, but now she knew how to tell them apart. She cleaned the mortar and looked up at the sky. The real crystal was out there, and she was learning how to find it.