ORIGIN - what's that song by cavetown, again?

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Sand was a very unfortunate substrate for a chrysalis to grow on - eventually it'll be swept away by the underwater currents and there was little it could do to hold onto something more firm. It was supposed to hatch elsewhere, in Fornax, where the waters were warm and vast, but it had chosen a spot too close to the tunnels and so the currents had swept it away. With only the sand to anchor it, it was loose and free and would be swept through the water for some time until at last, it was hurled over the falls of Pisces.

Still small when it happened, it was ejected from the spray and tumbled down, not into the lagoon, but onto the wet stones near the ponds. There, at last, it found a solid surface and attached itself.

But it wasn't supposed to hatch here. The creature inside was meant for a life underwater, yet circumstances would give it a poor start. When at last the chrysalis had grown, and it began to hatch, it was ejected onto the hard stone floor. A mixture of water and amniotic fluid kept it wet and drenched as it came to consciousness for a few moments longer. But under open air and the bright lights, its scales quickly began to dry. And its attempt to take a breath through gills utterly failed.

And so, the first thing Edgar knew in his life, was panic.

The poor juvenile shark squirmed on the stones, tail and fins flailing desperately, but he could barely move himself, especially under the weight of the dorsal fin citrine which was, for the moment, far, far too big for his small body. Instinct kicked in as he realized he was getting nowhere and magic sputtered to life, unconsciously calling out for help. A high pitched humming song vibrated through the air - all he could do without having a breath to spare.

Every day, Aurelle took a bucket into Polaris and fetched water to take back home, usually finding a few berries or mushrooms along the way to snack on.

Today, though, she'd found nothing.

It was a little risky, but she decided to head out further than usual, in the hopes that she could find something to bring back. Pisces was nice and cool whenever the caves were heating up for the summer, anyway-- and though she hadn't found anything just yet, the cool misting of the waterfall was soothing as she dunked the bucket beneath the lagoon's water.

And then, something caught her ear. A low, little buzz. At first, she'd tried to ignore it: but Aurelle's ears were more sensitive than most, and after a moment, it began to feel like something was rattling away in her skull. The elf lifted her head, frowning.

That's new, she decided. I suppose it couldn't hurt to follow it.

She used her own magic just to make sure she didn't fall down into the water anywhere. The bacterium showed her where the cave floor dipped or plunged, and eventually she came to a little wriggling lump on the sand. At first, the elf suspected nothing-- she approached the lump. "Hey, are you making that..?"

She leaned down to touch-- (honestly, she thought it was a lesser, at first) --and soon realized it was something that was absolutely not meant to be on land.

"Oh, goodness gracious me!" She yelped, startled. She didn't quite ask before scooping Edgar up into her hands, wielding the poor boy as she bounce-stepped quickly towards the water. It was, in fairness, an emergency.

It was the most ungraceful Aurelle had ever been: all legs and wild hair, wielding the sharkling at arms length (no doubt, being snatched by a stranger had made him thrash even more, and even if not, Aurelle still had the sense to not hold him near her face), hair wild and half-yelping with each step as she blindly navigated her way into the water.

It was a process that was maybe twenty seconds long, but might as well have been twenty minutes for them both.

Finally, though, she was trudging through water and, once up to her waist in fresh, cool water, tossed Edgar right into the water. "Oh no, oh no, oh no," she chanted worriedly, lifting a hand to her chin with a frown. "Did you make it?"

@Edgar

He definitely heard the elf speaking to him, but he was a little too concerned about his own dwindling chances of survival to properly pay attention, desperately thrashing to try and make his way towards water before he dried out. When she picked him up, well, instinct did indeed grow more desperate, terrified that some predator was handling him, fighting and failing to free himself from the unknown grip.

He could really do nothing but violently squirm as he was gracelessly heralded towards the water, his jaws constantly gasping, as if water might magically just appear. And then, suddenly it did. For a moment he was airborne, but before he could even appreciate the moment he was splashing into cool, clear water and water was flooding into his mouth. He immediately stopped thrashing as he sucked water through and over his gills over and over, taking deep, gracious breaths as the haze of terror began to dissipate.

His vision focused as everything settled back into place. It was over the course of a few moments that he stabilized and cleared the panic from his system so he could actually appreciate the feeling of being alive. Something that he very very much appreciated after the brief ordeal.

And then, he remembered that there had been someone that had saved them, and she was right there behind where he'd been tossed in. The shark turned, eyes following the legs up to the head of the creature, peeking his face out of the water for a brief moment (although the gills stayed firmly under the surface). "Hi. Thank you. You saved me? Thank you. I made it." The mouth dipped back in to suck in another breath of fresh water, but his eyes stayed firmly on the elf.

@Aurelle

It was a scary few seconds.

Aurelle briefly wondered if she was just staring at a dead body floating in the water, waiting for it to respond. Times like these, and these alone, were the times she wished her eyes still worked properly. But sure enough, the water yawned and a voice spoke to her.

She'd never quite felt such relief washing over her before. "Ahh! Thank goodness," she breathed, clasping her hands in front of her. "I'm glad." She nodded a few times, mostly to herself, her pale hair bouncing.

It was another moment before the thought occurred to her: this creature was speaking. "Oh! You're not a lesser," Aurelle said aloud, half-voicing her own thoughts. "I'm not sure I've ever met a gembound that lived in water and spoke before. I'm Aurelle. Do you know your name?"

She'd probably be wishing Edgar a happy birthday, too, if only she knew what that was.

@Edgar

As the shark floated gently in the water, a little weighed down by the giant citrine sticking out of its back, he wondered why Aurelle wasn't in the water too. Well, she was, but she was talking outside of it and standing and not dying like he had been moments ago. Perhaps she didn't need to, perhaps she could simply breath the not-water?

Well that didn't seem very fair. Why was she able to be in and out of water it but he could only be in? She could move around perfectly fine on the rocks and also in the water but he could barely move. He was a little saddened by this, comparing his brand new form to that of the first one he sees.

But...that thinking was all in bad taste, wasn't it? She had saved him and he should be grateful for without her, he would not have a life at all, in or out of the water. She had seen him at his most vulnerable and made a kind choice. Perhaps that was all that really mattered.

Still, her line of inquiry ticked something in him strangely, not quite annoyed or angry but, if he had a face that was more expressive then a shark's, he might have frowned. "Lesser? What is...lesser? Are lived in water ones lesser? What makes me not lesser?" How sad to think that if there were others like him, that they might be classified as Lesser. If all swimming things were this "Lesser", then he wasn't sure if he wanted to be the only one that wasn't. How lonely that seemed.

But for his name? He thought for a moment before raising his head above the water again. "Edgar. You can call me that."

Aurelle wrung out her hands absent-mindedly. The water was mostly still, but it still felt uncomfortable to be standing in, especially in a dress. Her skirt was ballooned around her, but she didn't want to trudge out while she was talking to Edgar. It seemed... rude, somehow.

Speaking of rude, her eyebrows raised a little bit. "No, no, not all of them," she answered quickly. She didn't want Edgar to think he was somehow less than for not being something that lived on land. "Lesser gembound are everywhere. They don't talk to other people-- I don't think they can cast magic, either?" She didn't know, but she'd certainly never encountered a lesser that used it.

That said, she couldn't see anything.

She offered a smile. "I've never met anyone who had to stay in water before. I'm glad to meet you, Edgar." She was also had he didn't die in her arms, but perhaps that didn't need to be said out loud. If nothing else, she didn't want to contribute to a baby's first existential crisis. He'd already been through enough.

"I think an important thing that makes someone not lesser is that they can ask for help," Aurelle said after a moment. "So, how are you feeling now?

@Edgar

Oh, Aurelle's explanation made sense. It would be kind of mean and sad to just call all water things "Lesser". Sad. And lonely. But if there were not-water Lessers too, that made him feel a lot better. Magic, though, "Magic?" Was that what he had done? It had been mostly instinctual, but he supposed that had been kind of weird. He tried it again, and found that it was a little harder to do underwater, at least the same replication of what he'd done before. The air just above the water, though, began to hum again, a low tune which he quickly stopped. "Oh. That's cool! All not-Lessers have magic? Do you have magic?" He grew a little excited, and curious, swimming forward just a little as he dipped his head back in the water (it was a little annoying having to move his head out of the water every few seconds to talk) to see if she would give a demonstration.

Her other point, though, gave him pause. That was a nice thought. Not-lessers could help each other, and ask for help. Lessers, then, all couldn't talk. A good distinction. "I see. That is sad for them. The Lessers. If they are hurt or in trouble, what do they do? They can't get help? I am feeling okay," he added, before he asked too many further questions. "The water is nice here."

@Aurelle

"I have magic," Aurelle nodded. "I used magic to find you. I, ahh, can't see very well."

She didn't give any demonstration. She didn't have any magic, that, well... felt. Nothing she could do made sound, and if it did anything visually, she was totally unaware of it-- but she knew when she cast most things, Lichen was unaware of it. "Yours is very noisy, but mine is quite quiet," she explained, her head following the sound of Edgar swimming through the water.

Apparently, as she'd been told, it was disconcerting for the sighted to not be looked at when they spoke to you-- even if they were aware you couldn't see. Very strange! But it was habit now. "Mine helps people, I think-- it helps me especially to find my way. And if someone is hurt or sick, I can make them feel better."

Buzzing-magic was a new one. The elf hummed contemplatively, tapping her fingers on her chin. "You might be able to do more things with sounds as you get older," she said. "I used to only be able to do one thing-- now I can do quite a few things."

Now, the lessers. She nodded gently, agreeing, "it is a little sad," she said. "I'm not sure what they do, though. I thought you might be one, and you'd have been the first one I encountered that did magic and asked for help, but... well, I'm glad you're feeling okay now."

The elf let out another contemplative hum. "Maybe they can communicate with other Lessers, somehow, in a way that we don't understand?" She shrugged a little. "The water does feel nice, though. I quite like it here. I think this place is called Pisces."

She always got Pisces and Polaris mixed up, but she was fairly certain she was right.

@Edgar

He didn't understand that. Why couldn't she see? Did her eyes not work? He tried to look at her more closely, to see if he could notice something about her eyes, and he realized that, through their conversation, she really hadn't been looking at him. "Oh. I'm sorry. Can I help with that? Do you need new eyes?" He didn't think about the impossibility of just replacing someone's eyes, but ah...he didn't really know anything.

"Oh I see. That sounds useful. Your magic helped me then because I was sick and now I feel better!" Well, not really sick but...close enough. "That's very nice of you. Do you help everyone? What if they're Lesser or what if they're mean to you? Would you still help?" Edgar wonded if that was something he would do - if he saw someone in trouble and tried to help, and if they were mean to him, would he still help? He liked to think that he would, if he could. But he had not been in a situation like that, nor had he met anybody mean. Maybe he would have different feelings then.

"Pisces. It's cold here. Are all places cold? Wait...there are other places?" His whole world was currently here, this cave, this water, but he wondered if there were more waters - warmer ones, saltier ones, ones with more creatures in it that could talk, ones were the water flowed faster or slower or went deeper and shallower. Oh, the possibilities! Endless!

@Aurelle

"Oh, no, it doesn't need help," Aurelle answered simply, easily. "Honestly, I don't think I'd want to see. It's all very... over-stimulating, I think. But I think that it's nice that you're worried." If you were going to ask her, she'd much prefer people didn't ask at all, but she couldn't exactly fault someone two minutes old for not knowing etiquette around the disabled.

Actually, maybe it was worth mentioning. "Some people just do things differently. It doesn't always mean something is wrong or broken," she said, her tone gentle. "Like... I'm made for land, and you're made for water. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with either of us. Does that make sense?" She hoped it did, and she hoped she wasn't making him feel a little self-conscious for living differently.

To his next questions, Aurelle nodded. "Well," she said. "Most people aren't mean just to be nasty. If they're a little nasty when they're sick or hurt, it's usually just because they're hurting really bad, or they don't feel well. I'd still try to help them, I think, but--" and this was very important, "some people don't want help, and that's okay, too. It's nice to help people, but they have to want to be helped. It's not good for anyone to force it. So, unless it's an emergency-- like you not being able to breathe until you were in water --it's always very polite to ask." She nodded a few more times for good measure.

"The caves are actually quite big," Aurelle said, gesturing vaguely around. "I haven't been everywhere, and... admittedly, I don't know where you can go in water. But it's fun to explore!"

She smoothed out the front of her dress as she spoke. "This is Pisces. I live in a place called Orion, which isn't as cold. Mmn, there's Eridanus, but that place has been a little spooky in the last while, so I'm not sure I'd recommend staying there. That place is quite warm and humid, ahh... sort of like the air is wet."

What else? "There's Polaris," she said. "That's nearby. It's sort of... buzzy-feeling? Oh, and there's Cetus, which is also quite humid, but I don't go there very often. And there's probably even more that I don't remember, or don't even know about!" She added, cheerful.

"If you ever go exploring, I'd like to hear about the places you see," Aurelle smiled. "I like hearing stories."

@Edgar

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