ORIGIN

Eridanus was always an intriguing place for the reptile, with its many mysterious facets and coves, the trees that were alien to him every time he left Cetus and entered the deciduous forest room. Some part of him expected to see the same trails weaving through the trees, the same details in the roof above, the same blanket of thick white mist that came rolling in over the leaf litter, but every time it was different. There were new smells and tastes on the air that he would forget, only to rediscover. The way the artificial light seemed to bleed through the canopies like golden rays, dappling the earth in a sparkle of sunshine, so unlike the way it was pallid and cold in Cetus. It felt actually warm here, and while it was far from his comfort zone of cold and wet, it at least soothed his muscles into a seamless stride.

The komodo found himself wandering, searching even, for any sign of the ones that had gone missing. He hadn't gotten the chance to ask Dragon, but he'd noticed - it didn't take a fool to realize the absence of the ones who had previously been so prominent in one's life. Eve had vanished, as well as Oliver, causing him to believe that for some reason she had taken the winged dog somewhere. Tal'at was gone as well, leaving them without their two winged surveyors. While Ghanyarah didn't share an excessively close relationship with them, he had spent enough time to realize when they were gone. And damn it all, he kind of liked Eve.

He left his pupil, allowing her to return to Pisces or where ever it was she had come from while he embarked on his quest for his missing groupmates. Every now and then his mind wandered to what new lesson he would whip up for her, each one an excuse to see her test out her magic and try to replicate it in his own spare time. His sunset eyes flickered in search of any sign of the two winged ones, a flash of movement in the corner of his eye, a shadow passing overhead, but there was nothing - not until he spotted something massive shifting among the underbrush. Ghanyarah froze, the defensive stance of instinct, until he found himself recognizing that white and black vested pattern.

"Gracie?" He blurted, regardless of whether or not it was actually the panda he remembered. His long tail lashed from side to side with excitement, almost like a canine's - maybe it was a habit he'd picked up from watching Nova - and he stumbled through the vegetation, busting through the leaves and into the clearing in which she sat, clumsily smashing through the mud and snow where she'd been quietly focusing. "Gracie!"

The reptile nearly hadn't noticed the pained yelp and the way she smothered her paw in the snow - his excitement nearly swallowed him whole, bursting out of the bushes in front of Gracie and capturing just that fleeting half-second before she realized he was there. He felt a twinge of guilt when he had startled her, but the smile had washed that feeling away and left Ghanyarah was a fuzzy warmth beneath his hide at her delighted response. If the reptile could purr, he would; all he could do was vibrate his tail in the mud, a steady, excited thumping that seemed almost unnatural for a reptile. "I haven't seen you in so long! Have you been here this whole time?" He gawked at her, side-stepping to get a better look at his friend. She, too, was definitely bigger than the last time he'd seen her. They were both younger, and she was small, fluffy, more of a bear-sphere than the grown out form she had now. Still pretty round, but in a different way.

A few times he'd come to Eridanus for exploration, or investigation - the Eyes had been of interest to him for a while, and then he made his map with Eve, exploring the rooms in the cave beyond what they had ever seen. The map still wasn't totally complete, but he was steadily making his way, adding details as they came. He was still pretty proud of Polaris. Oh, but there was Netil, who often kept him busy hunting and babysitting and making sure he didn't eat anyone. And Nova. Ghanyarah had a surprisingly busy schedule.

Ghanyarah waited with baited breath for his answer, although he didn't exactly know what to expect of it, or how to feel once he'd receive it, or even what he'd wanted to hear. It felt like she had been gone this whole time, every time he entered Eridanus in search of her he couldn't find her. He wanted the comfort of knowing that she'd been there regardless of whether or not he could find her, and yet he wanted that same comfort of knowing that he hadn't failed in finding her, she just wasn't there. But then the worry came that if she hadn't been in Eridanus, where had she been? What kinds of things had she endured without Ghanyarah to know about them?

Yet when she did finally answer, the reptile found some relief blossoming in his chest. She had been gone from Eridanus, which worried him, but she spoke more of traveling and seeing everything in the cave, and Ghanyarah's eyes widened with curiosity. They eased as she mentioned Eridanus being her favorite, and his smile broadened, and he half thought to suggest that she come to Cetus, but suddenly felt selfish for thinking that way. Granted, that had never stopped Ghanyarah from doing anything before, it felt... wrong... unfair, even, to shove aside her favorite and impart his own. It was just selfish of him to want her to stop exploring and stay in a place she probably didn't even like. For once, he kept that want to himself.

"Where have you traveled?" He asked, flicking his tongue. "I traveled as well. I went to Pisces and the tunnels connecting the eastern portion of the cave, to make a map for my brother Dragon. I'm still not done - I have a lot of places to visit - maybe you can tell me about them? It would be a great aid to my map," He said idly, but still found himself smiling, and that excitement was still evident in his rigid reptilian chords. In the back of his mind, he almost wanted to invite her to Cetus to show her all his drawings. "Oh, among other things, too. I'm training this weird dog how to use her magic. And I kicked this spider's ass, it was awesome." He couldn't help but gloat, hoping that she would ask so that he could tell her all about his dramatic fight.

The lizard settled down in the muck, patiently and eagerly awaiting his panda friend's response. Sunset eyes trained on her as he attuned his ears to her, nodding, and following along mentally. The tunnels he knew, there were many of them in the cave, and not just the ones connecting the rooms on this half of the cave. There were enough of those, but combine them with the tunnels on the other half of the cave - the ones he'd briefly seen on his trip to Canis - and that made... well, twice as many tunnels. That was a lot of tunnels. Almost too many, if you asked him. But then she spoke of a room with a big glowing crystal, and he felt like he knew that room. Polaris. It was where they fought the dragon, Ghanyarah remembered the battle fondly. He smiled and nodded.

The bone room sounded a lot like Canis, so when she said she didn't like it, Ghanyarah contorted his expression into a scowl and dismissed the room as well. If it wasn't good enough for Gracie, then it wasn't good enough for him! He might have to go back to it to finish his map, but he sure as hell wasn't going to go in there. That was the last of what she said about the rooms before agreeing with him about his map, and Ghanyarah lifted himself from the ground again, eyes lighting up with amusement. "You should come see my map! It's a little incomplete, but maybe it will help!" Oh, maybe she could meet the rest of the Children of Rot, too. Would they like her? Of course they would, she was so nice!

Ghanyarah nodded fervently at her questions about the spider. "Yes! It was very huge and icky. See, I was hunting for Aquarian, mine and Dragon's father, because he requires a large amount of food. My companions and I tracked down a herd of cave deer, and..." The reptile blinked, realizing that he was delivering this more report style than like the interesting, nerve-wracking story it really was. He cleared his throat and raised his head, drumming up his story telling skills. "...and we saw them, all four of them. Three females and one great big stag. And I said, I'm not going back unless it's with that stag... so I told my companions the plan. We crept up on the deer and I used my ice magic... to trap it! The ice came up and froze its legs, SSSNAP! Just like that! As soon as it was stuck, I lunged and wrassled it to the ground. It almost got me a few times with its great big antlers, but I was too fast." Ghanyarah said coolly, grinning at the panda. "With a big CHOMP-" He clicked his teeth loudly. "-I broke its neck, and it was mine! Easiest kill I ever made! But... something else wanted to eat that deer. Before I knew it, my companion SHOUTED from behind me, LOOK OUT! I turned just in time and saw this HUGE, NASTY spider!"

To a larger Gembound, the spider might not have been that intimidating. But for squat little Ghanyarah who sat low to the ground, anything bigger than two feel tall was big to him. "I said, NO WAY! I told it to get lost, but that spider was out for blood. It came right at me with its little spider fangs! So I wrassled with it too, right on top of the stag! Boy it was messy, but in the end I managed to freeze it, and it tried to wrap me up, so first chance I got, I grabbed its head and WHAM! Right into an ice spike!" He laughed, using one hand to demonstrate his cunning tactics. "I won that round, too, but not unscathed. After I won, I realized that it bit me. You ever go completely numb before? It's very strange. I don't remember much after that. But, uhhh, at least I ended up taking home a stag AND a spider!" He snickered proudly. That was a good day, aside from having to recover from the spider bite. It was still there on his flank, the scales displaced and gnarled.

By the time the reptile had finished his story, he was nearly out of breath. He stared at her before realizing that his lungs had grown tight with a lack of oxygen and the reptile sucked in, cracking his jaws open an inch to maximize his inhale-exhale capacity and listened to the volley of questions she had formulated in response to his tale. "Heck yeah I took it home. I took back the deer and the spider, it was great. Well, I didn't. Dragon did. I was kind of useless at that point." He said nonchalantly, internally struggling against his own pride to admit exactly how useless he was. He had been... completely paralyzed and fading in and out of consciousness. At one point, he had heard Dragon's voice and been unable to even identify it as his alligator brethren. There was no way he would have been able to drag the carcasses back, unless he had been given time to recover but by that point something would have eaten him, or the carcasses, or both.

"Aquarian! You don't know who Aquarian is?" He blinked at her, aghast by this news. How could she not know?! He was only the biggest, best living thing in the cave. He protected them all! (Kind of!) He was loud and magnificent and powerful! He was smart and old and wise! He was everything that Ghanyarah strived to be! "He's a great big serpent that lives in the marsh. You don't see him often, but when he comes up he's... hard to miss. Very loud. Very strong. He's also my dad." Ghanyarah said matter-of-factly, grinning. "And Dragon's. At least, according to Dragon. So that makes us brothers. Anyways, Aquarian is the guardian of Cetus, and we give him offerings to appease him. He ate the spider AND the deer. It was so cool." The komodo gushed, snickering.

"I should bring you to see him some time. He's really, really, really big." And a little scary. And really intimidating. Ghanyarah would, again, hate to admit that he had been frightened of the monstrous serpent for a few cycles to the point of being unable to act in his presence. "Have you ever seen Cetus? I can't remember. I should bring you to my tree. I should bring you to the Divine - we decorated it with - wait, ah, nevermind," He stopped himself there, realizing that maybe Gracie didn't want to hear about all the guts and innards they had launched at the tree. "But at the very least you have to see my map!"