ORIGIN

Imp awoke, choking and shivering, tucked below the waterline within the Eyes. His Tiger's Eye had cracked and spilled him out into the cold, and as he flailed toward the surface, he managed to suck in an enormous, bitterly cold lungful of water. When he erupted onto land, it wasn't with grace and pride, but with desperation, clawing at the mud to haul his soggy body out, choking and coughing.

He spent several minutes gasping, passing out and waking up, and vomitting up water.

His eyes opened at last, as he remembered he actually had some now. "...I HAVE FUCKING EEEEYES!" he crowed, overjoyed and triumphant--and it turned into water-filled coughing. He hauled himself out of the water, blinking it away, looking around himself in amazement. There were TREES! And BUSHES! Flowers! Light! Awe flooded him, and a gratitude--to Farina--so deep that his heart felt close to bursting. She really did it, he thought, astonished. She kept her word!
So maybe the Masters weren't all bad, after all!

Imp looked down at himself, taking stock of his body, which he hadn't seen since before the last Hydra trial--before he'd ever even grown feathers. There were talons, long and wicked, on the backs of his hind feet--which were now webbed, forming excellent swimming fins. Imp gave this a test, jumping in and swimming doggy paddle laps around the Eyes. Then he hauled himself out, realizing as he did so that he didn't really feel the need to breathe; he could tell, instinctively, that his lungs would carry him for many long minutes now on a single breath. And his nostrils, too, squeezed entirely shut when he wanted!

He examined his reflection as the waters stilled, and stared in utter awe. His vision had seemed a little off, but he'd been blind so long he hadn't considered why. Now, he could see why: he had FOUR eyes! Four! -And they GLOWED! "FUCK YES," he declared, whiskers trembling in excitement.

And--oh, shit; he had FINS? Long, flexible but stiff spines, jutting out down his body--and THEY glowed, too?! In awe, he turned, looking at himself as best he could--there were iridescent scales, and a big fin behind each ear, and--oh shit where's my earring?
One deep dive later, he'd picked it from the rocks beneath his broken chrysalis--and found that, yes, he could hold his breath immensely long. Cool. I can walk, fly AND swim! It took him awhile to finagle the earring back into his ear with one foot, especially with those long talons, but after he'd finished he took a look around.

Farina or Artio weren't here to thank, and anyway, their business was complete. He wanted to go straight back to Dragon, to report in and say hi, to excitedly show everything off--maybe Fahl would be there, too! But-... there was one thing he wanted to see, again.

To gloat over, really, if it were still there.

He looked down into the eyes, and yelled. "FUCK YOU, NEMEAN!" and then paused, listening with his big bats' ears.

He didn't hear anything in response, but he knew she'd be waking up about now, too, if she were anything like Gembounds. Waking up... and drowning and burning again.

Ha!
So now he'd make a journey, test out this new body... and look at his old art. And then, when he had time-? He'd go say hi to family, and to old friends, too.