ORIGIN - proper ganders

For the most part, Bear hasn't been doing much. He's been following school to school, living languidly in the streams of Pegasus, blending in with the more intricate of lessers he's been with. They aren't much for companionship, and everything's felt so dull. None of them even care about his attempts to talk! Neither do the bigger lessers past the surface, and it's there he figured out that they listen much better to actual talking, even if they either startle or try to eat him...

But he does get to see a lot of them, because they all eventually come to the river to drink. He's started to notice the differences, which ones to avoid and which to simply watch, but none of them are like him. They don't care to talk about the taste of the latest bug, and neither do they tell him why they're out there and he's in there. They're so alien to him. Who could blame him? He's just a little fish.

He's a little fish who's different, and he's going to try and find someone like him. Sticking to the surface of the water, Bear has been sticking his eyes out to try and peep the outside world, watching and taking it all in. There's something out there, something with a sort-of lesser shape, but it's not really the same, and that's curious enough for him to strain to see more.

It takes him a few jumps and himself getting far too close to the beach to start figuring out what he's looking at. They're... blue? White? He's not really sure. Squirming to prop his mouth up on the shoreline, the little fish tries his voice before swishing to the side of a 'breath' of water.

"Hey-hey? You look different." What if they don't like being different? "Wait! You look good. Don't run away?"

@Jampa

She'd returned from her adventure through the false wall, to the strange place that was so horrifically open; whether the wolf child had followed her back to Pegasus or not, Jampa had retreated to the space that had become her home (insofar as a space could be home when disassociating). She went to the meadows which were the most familiar, even if it felt dream-like to be present among the many variegated flowers and drifting through the tall grass. She went further still, to where a bend of the river that coursed across the terrain was the most inviting.

It is nice to be among things that are familiar. The songs of the cave birds are much more resonant to Jampa now that she's heard the strangeness of that other place - and she stands there beside the quietly babbling pulse of the river, listening; when eventually the cave birds go quiet, she sighs - and is interrupted out of her moment of zen by a voice.

"Hey-hey? You look different." Oh? Jampa's ears pivot, and soon enough she is looking left, right, up, down - eyes roving. The feathers along her shoulders fluff out a bit, while her wings tense and seem to lift, although they do not unfurl. The instinct inside of her (rather, part of her) says to pull back immediately and seek the shelter of the nearest copse of trees.

"Wait! ---" She's reacting to the continued voice, missing a beat of what is said as she tries to focus, and to find where the source originates. It sounds like it comes from the... water? The crown of her antlers appears over the river's embankment, then her eyes, as she looms a little bit over... a talking fish. "Don't run away!"

If she could blush, she would do so. Maybe her cheeks tint a subtle pink beneath the white of her hide, but there's no way to tell regardless. The deer-girl blinks and takes in the sight of this larger-than-average fish, having never met a fish that could talk or really anything of the water with that sort of ability -- 'Well, except for Tenzin,' corrected a deeper voice in her psyche.

"Um, hello," she offered, trying to be polite. A cursory glance over the length of the fish, as quick and unobtrusive as she could, helps her to spot a gleam of something attached nearer to their tail. Ah. "You're -- one of me. A gembound. I've never met one like you before." There didn't appear to be any reason to run away, now.

@Bear

Bear certainly didn't hide his gem, that was for sure. Though, he wasn't really aware that's what she was looking for; he'd just stared at her with big, round eyes, wiggling a little to get more water through him.

"Gembound? There's others?" Not many like him, then. "I haven't met one like me either." He must've been looking in all the wrong places. "Is that why you look different? You have big... fins? Like the ones that fly." He wanted to ask if she could fly, but he'd already started yapping enough, pausing between to dampen his gills every so often.

"I'm... Bear, by the way." Yeah, Bear sounded like a good thing to call him. Punchy. To the point. Not that he knew that bears were already a thing, nor did he get the irony of his own name. "Are there gembounds that look like you?"

@Jampa

"Many, many others." She confirmed this with a little nod and another smile, pausing to listen to the fish as they continued to speak; their name was met by a slight widening of the girl's smile and she contained the urge to giggle as the fish held many questions.

Her wings, previously tucked like some kind of mantle against her back, lifted and unfurled so that they could be shown off. A few extraneous tufts of downy fluff came floating from among her feathers and furs, with one longer pinion feather coming loose, finding its way to the water's surface. "These are my wings. I suppose they are like fins - for the air." Tempted then to flap them, she resists and tucks them back against her shoulders.

"There are lots of us here. Not so many in the river, or in the water, at least that I've seen - so that makes you special." Especially given that Bear could talk, and reason, and by virtue of their gem they held magic that the lessers were not privy to. "I wish I could show you. I don't know if your river flows to other caves, though. Hmm."

Maybe they could find a way to explore together? Jampa hoped her new friend wasn't trapped here, that would be sad.

@Bear

Wings. He'll remember that, twisting to watch the loose feather tumble down to the water.

So that's why none of the other fish talked to him. That made sense. Bear did his best to hum in thought, coming out as a low blurble as he continued to simply scoop up water. Thinking, thinking...

"The river flows a long way. I came from..." And he twisted, but he'd become so turned around he couldn't exactly point his way there. Better to just resettle in the bank than to get either of them lost. "From a darker place. I could barely see my beak..!" If he could grin he would, but maybe his squeaky laugh could give off the same impression. "I think it goes farther. Maybe places you can't go! But... I like it here, better than the colder end of the river."

He wanted to see what she was talking about, the other gembound, the other caves. But he needed water more than she did. Maybe... she mentioned fins for the air. "Are there gembound who don't swim or walk?"

@Jampa

The fish moved around a bit, and honestly Jampa had a hard time determining where they pointed, but not for lack of trying. The river was a whip of water coiled through the hills and meadows, and while she had lived here in Pegasus for quite a few cycles, she had been in a liminal space at the same time - unaware of what she'd done or experienced, and certainly oblivious to the circuitous route of the waterway.

"Are there gembound who don't swim or walk?"
"I've never thought about that before," she responded swiftly, then became thoughtful. A dreamy expression crossed her face and after a pause, she remarked: "There are some that only fly. Like the little birds and bugs that live here - have you seen them? Or, heard them? The bugs buzz, sometimes they get stuck on the water. The birds sing."

She pauses for another moment, her ears pivoting to listen for any of the lessers. When a repetitive scree-whistle sounded among distant trees, Jampa's face brightened. "That! Did you hear that? A bird made that sound. There are some with gems like yours on your tail, or mine here," She gives her head a little shake and the halo-stone shifts with her antlers - "That's the important bit. Your stone... Its why you are alive, and talking, and -- oh! Your magic!"

Jampa leans a little further over the water's edge, bowing her chin so her antlers are in fuller view, and the stone there glows faintly. She focuses her magicka and gradually the air becomes a little bit misty, then a lot misty, until there is only white mist everywhere around Jampa and Bear - as if nothing else but the fish, the water, and the girl exist.

"Ah! See? I did that. If you focus maybe you can tap in to your own magic."

@Bear