ORIGIN - red menace

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Affirmation came flooding from the other creature, which was overwhelming as a standalone, and made the lizard freeze a moment. There was a more subtle movement from Acheron when it moved to paw its own nose and the lizard reacted with a slow flinch, closing its eyes and moving its head back an inch; but it realized after that the other gembound was not moving to strike outward.

"Naaah, name?" Acheron had asked for something, and had given something, and now it stood waiting for an answer. All it would get was that quirky sound repeated - and then, slowly, the lizard became aware of a sound for itself.

"Ssss... Sah, Saul. Name, Sssaul." It took a concentrated effort not to drag out that initial sound, or make a trill with his tongue, but after repeating it aloud a few times the lizard knew it was right. "Saul, hm, y..es?"

Had the dark creature said something else? Something about magic; but he did not know that word yet and anyway, was too fixated on the sounds coming from its own mouth. He smacked his lips a few times as if in awe of them, clicked his teeth together, and stared forward at the dog - imperturbably.

@Acheron

Honestly, she'd already forgotten her other questions. Her attention had been too much taken, eyes wide, by the slowly chosen, repeated name.

"Saul?" she parroted back, trying out the sound of it. Tiny tail gave a hesitant single wag. "Saul--yes? Sure." Was he--asking her approval? She wasn't sure, but he had it, either way. The name sounded kinda neat.

She looked around, hopeful. She'd never met someone new, before--no strangers; she had no friends, as yet. This was the first other Gembound she'd met who could talk--unlike all the birds, and stuff!

So--what next? She remained carefully seated, afraid of scaring off this new potential friend, and thought quickly over what to do. Her dad hadn't taught her anything about befriending people, and she didn't know anything about small talk. So Acheron simply sat, for a moment, pondering.

She looked around after a beat. Curiosity spiked and she blurted the next question that popped into her head, without thinking: "Do you live here?"

She tried to imagine it--the tiny lizard, living all alone out here. Or maybe not alone-? She didn't know, but--maybe he could tell her more about Eridanus than she already knew! Maybe he knew secrets!

@Saul

His name was acceptable. He liked how short it was and how much easier it was for his tongue to speak it; not like At-huron, which to Saul was a hassle; he knew he wasn't saying it right when he tried. Then again, the lizard was doing pretty well with speech given how new he was, and would obviate further thoughts on the subject.

"Live here?" He parroted back at the dog, unsure of what they meant. He looked around and then turned to the path he'd followed, trying to see in to the distance but failing miserably; he was too small, low to the ground, and his eyes weren't so great. "There, shiny place." The land of light and shadow! That's where he lived; that's where he'd been born, anyway.

"At-huron live?" He didn't finish the sentence and appeared to pause, perhaps to try and grab for a word he did not yet know, and when the lizard looked to the dog again he patted the earth. "Here?"

@Acheron

'Shiny place?' Acheron thought, lifting her head to peer back the way Saul was vaguely gesturing. She was trying to figure out what that might mean when he asked her, in turn, where she lived. Or well--asked if she lived here, which she didn't.

"Oh! Not here. Um. Orion?" she asked, hesitating. She wasn't sure if he knew where, or what, Orion was. She nodded back toward Tunnel I, herself. "It's--the dark cave, with light crystals? It has a Throne! And an old city! And an arena," she went on, though she hadn't seen this last one herself. She really hadn't gotten enough of a chance to pick through the old ruins, either--she wanted to go get lost in those, the next chance she had. Not lost lost, but to explore them!

"I'm here to find food, and to look around," she went on, trying to make conversation of a sort. "You?" Was Saul here just hanging out, or on some sort of mission of his own?

@Saul

His new friend spoke rapidly. It took a few seconds between each statement for the words to really catch in Saul's head, but primarily he wasn't sure he understood everything regardless of how hard he tried. He didn't know what an Orion was, except it had the same inflection of a name, and it sounded like a place Acheron really liked. A good place.

"Look... around? Yes, I look," That's all he'd managed so far. Everything was so much bigger than him! It took ages to get this far and Saul didn't have any idea where he was going, or why.

A queer look crosses his wedge-face. "I think, I hurt," he takes a moment and ponders what he's said, then motions with a tip of his chin down at the dirt (by which he meant himself, but, didn't know the boundaries of his own body that well yet). "I tried.. the hard stuff, where I woke up. And thisss, the ssoft -- these," another motion, this one behind him on the path to a cluster of mushrooms growing out of the earth at the base of the Mother.

There were a few small tell-tale chunks missing.

"What iss food?"

She hesitated; she wasn't quite sure what he meant, but "I hurt" sounded... unpleasant? Was he injured, somehow? She frowned a little and looked him over, the corners of her black lips turning down, but could see nothing.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" she asked.

She looked, though, when he indicated the mushrooms; she'd never seen those, and stood, padding over to sniff. They didn't smell like something edible--but then again, different animals had different diets, right? That's what her dad had told her, anyway. Some ate meat, some plants, some both, and maybe some ate... uhh, whatever this was? She'd have happily told Saul the name of fungus, of mushrooms, but honestly she had no idea what they were called!

"I don't think that's food, but maybe it is for you? Um, food's--stuff you eat!" she added, helpfully. She knew she didn't have to explain eating, exactly, because Saul had taken some big ol' chunks out of the mushrooms, but who knew!

"Do those... taste good?" she asked, wondering. If not, maybe she could help him look for food; maybe they could look together--but if the mushrooms had filled him up, then maybe that was his diet.

@Saul

Oh! He wasn't clear. The dog-friend was concerned and talking rapidly, and while it took a second for Saul to catch up he did reach the conclusion that - yes, food! Food was what he wanted! His hurting was hunger.

He shook his head quickly in response to the question. "No! Tassste not good!" He stuck out his tongue with an emphatic bleh!!!

"Do you -- eat? Is this eat?" He lurched towards a stalagmite erupting near the cluster of mushrooms and feigned takinga bite - or, thought he did. Saul's spacial awareness being quite limited like the rest of him, he ended up catching part of it with his teeth and coming away with a chunk.

He chewed this thoughtfully and swallowed, then made a slow-motion grimace. "Eughhh! Jussst like ssshell! Is food? Bad food."

@Acheron

She hastened to correct him before the awful deed was done--"That's--no-!" ...but too late. For a moment, she stared blankly, one ear twisting back; then she took a breath.

"That was a rock," she informed him, speaking slowly.

Then Acheron glanced back, peering into the jungle, thinking. "There's... fruits, that live on trees? And plants, and bugs, and meat. Meat's, um. Living things, but ones that can't talk," she went on, parroting her lessons to the best of her memory. "We can try to find some of that, if you do want food? I eat fruit," she added, helpful. Not only fruit, but fruit was good.

As an afterthought, she eyed the mushrooms, and made a mental note that those apparently tasted bad.

@Saul

The lizard chewed up what he'd started masticating like some sort of tiny ruminant, and spat some of the resulting mud against the floor.

Acheron mentioned a slew of other options - and so far they'd been nice to him, so he did not think this was an attempt to vitiate or otherwise mislead him. Neither did he recognize what fruit was, or any of the slew of offered options; he was no connoisseur.

"I want try!" He erupted, and scurried towards his friend, halfway sprawled in an undignified manner across a foot. "Sshow! Sshow Saul the food!"

"We can search!" she answered, easygoing, and then pushed up (hoping she didn't spook him into another nose-stinging spark).

She turned and glanced around, pondering for a moment. Eridanus looked... fairly large--maybe big as other caves went, but to a new child, it looked vast. They could easily get lost in here! How was she to find fruit like this? Maybe her nose-? Oh--or her magic! She stood still for a moment, staring unseeing into the jungle, her mind instead upon her magic.

Concentration flared, and a doppleganger--albeit weak--split from her, stepping aside. "Now I can search more places," she explained, and set off into the forest. "Follow me! This me," she added, as the double forged a path in the opposite direction.

Acheron glanced back, then, realizing that Saul's little legs might suffer some, here. "You can sit on my back, if you want, while we search?"

@Saul

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