Kicking sand with his back feet, Rohan buried the jagged, dried wood hastily before he flipped around, scooping it out with a strong flick of his right paw. It was thrown a short distance, and he pounced toward it, repeating the process. He switched from flicking it with his paw and tossing it with his nose each time he arrived at it. This went on for nearly ten minutes before he stopped to take a breather, tail wagging as he lifted his head toward the direction of the door.
He couldn't get that good of a look at it from his island, but he could hear it was still doing some strange things. Panting still, he stood over the driftwood to catch his breath a little more before picking the precious stick up and carrying it back across the island to the rest of his things. As Rohan carefully placed it in his bundle, he gave it a soft smile. "There. Played with you today, too. I need to take a break for a little while, though. If you'll excuse me," he gave a curt bow and turned halfway, glancing toward the doorway.
Its activity had been bothering him. It hadn't ever done anything quite like that his whole time living here. The water surging through it was more alarming. Where was it coming from? Was something going to happen to the water in here? He turned back to his possessions and frowned. There was only so much land. He couldn't carry all of his things in his mouth. If worst came to worst, he knew which one he would choose. His sharp blue eye locked onto the chunk of obsidian that sat atop of a large leaf so it would stay clean of sand and other debris. There was a time where it was just a piece of chrysalis. Now it fed his disillusion.
Bending down, he lifted it gently with his jaws and moved to the edge of the water, laying just at the shore. He put his front paws together and placed the obsidian there, then looked toward the doorway to watch it as he took his break to relax before going to spend time with the others. Rohan's favorite time of the day was his time with Leon.
"I don't know why," he said quietly, regarding the water that came surging through the door again. While he kept a playful and light attitude with his other companions, it comforted him knowing he could confide in Leon. Rohan had nearly all but forgotten what he had been looking for in the first place when he'd come to this room. The door had been open for him, originally. However, the buzzing that lured him there wasn't present now. It hadn't been since the day he'd gotten locked in. "No," he laughed, patting his tail against the sand, "I'm far too chicken to go over and check it out. I don't want to race against the surges."
There was a moment of silence as they watched in the direction of the doorway. Rohan let out a snort seemingly randomly, though truly it was in response to whatever conversation he was listening to. Leon was convincing him to face his fears and go check the door out. (His subconscious was trying to get him try and escape.) He snorted again and thrust his nose upward. "Man, no, I'll probably drown," he complained, his voice growing frustrated. Little angered him, but the doorway was his biggest fear and he didn't even know it. Rohan didn't even know it was why he was angry every time he thought about it. It trapped him. He never wanted to go near it, even if it was his only way out. It had become a symbol of loss, detachment, and pain. Rohan hated nothing - he was a paragon, a monk, a lighthearted and loving individual even despite his hardships; but he hated the door and he didn't even know it.
"Whhhyyy?" Groaning, he threw his head into the sand as he flopped onto his side, acting like a child while being careful to keep his forepaws straight and the obsidian neatly atop them. "You probably could," he retorted with a laugh, rolling his eye and stone. Heaving a great sigh, he stared eye-level with the water's surface and glowered. He... very rarely pouted. The room was incredibly large and there was so much to do, there was absolutely nothing to pout about! But Leon was always his weak spot.
The door was.. trying to open. He could hear it. That's what it had been doing. The noise shifted each time and he could tell it was the siphon. His eye snapped to the obsidian and he lifted his brow curiously. "Do you think so?" he asked sincerely, voice straining to break through the throat that wanted to hold all his sound away from the world. He rose gently and collected the obsidian within his jaws, staring out across the ocean. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, think about it. Why wouldn't they? Come on, Rohan. Let's explore!"
So he stepped slowly into the water and swam. He trusted his brother more than anything. Their destination was the small island that sat just beyond the door, but its surface was washed over with each surge. Nothing Rohan couldn't just stand in, but he couldn't place Leon anywhere lest the obsidian be washed into the sea. It was really more of a sandbank, anyway, if one wanted to be technical. The water was warmer than one might expect, though Rohan never questioned why. He was trapped in the room before he knew much about anything, so he didn't know whether or not oceans were supposed to be warm or cold. He didn't even know the word ocean.
They reached the sandbank just before the next surge, but as the sea swelled with the intake, the sandbank was spared anything too terrible. Rohan steadied his legs against the push, having done so on the shores so many times before (though not technically to practice standing against... surges). He stood dumbly with the large chunk of obsidian in his mouth, watching the doorway carefully. It was dark, and he couldn't see anything through the entrance, not even the door. It sat away and the water that surged through came rushing around. He watched anxiously as the siphon's sounds grew more and more distinguishable; and then, the flow.
The steady flow. The door was open.
He was paralyzed. Some part of him wanted to turn back and swim quickly back to his island. He wanted to run, hide; what was going to come through? What opened the door? Surely it wasn't just the water. He could hear the efforts. He couldn't hear the voices - but he could hear that the siphon was being struggled with. It was the way the water came through on his end and the way the siphon and the door closed abruptly. He was shaking with anxiety. Who had been doing it? How did they succeed? The buzzing wasn't here, either, so it wasn't related at all to his own entry into the large room of water and small lands.
The shadow came first. The memory hit him like a freight train and he nearly collapsed into the sand. The armor. That's why he had come here. He'd found the chest piece and met the lioness who knew his brother, but all that had been taken away. He'd forgotten all of it until now. His jaw clenched and he accidentally held Leon too tight. The obsidian was a tough stone, though, and easily endured it. Rohan's body did him a great favor and breathed for him, where otherwise the wolf was frozen and void of all function. A black wolf came next. Others. He hadn't seen others... in so long.
The cultural shock made him nauseous. Why...? Why had they come.. now? Generally his mind was his temple and he was a being of great relief; but he was nothing at the moment. His personality had been completely stripped at the sight of others. Other... real Gembounds. Not his driftwood, or his obsidian, or his quartz, or his glass he accidentally made, or any other of his belongings—no, companions—but living flesh bodies.
He placed Leon at his paws, pushing the chunk of stone into the sand in an effort to give it a chance against the water. He wanted to share the moment with someone at least. His mouth opened but nothing came out. He stared stupidly at the group as his brain continued to register what it saw. "Look," he said after a large gulp, nudging the obsidian with his paw pad as his voice dropped to a whisper, "Look at them, they're real. It's the shadow, and another wolf, and.. is that Le—"
His world stopped.
This time his body even forgot to breathe.
His paw slowly slid off of the obsidian next to him and numbly touched down into the sand. His legs were jello and it was quite the miracle he remained standing as everything else around him vanished. The shadow was gone. The water was gone. The Gembounds were gone.
The obsidian jutting out of the brown fur was the only thing in view. The tunnel vision had him entranced as his mind struggled terribly to piece together what was happening. Leon was here, at his side. He had been for many cycles. He taught Rohan to swim. He taught Rohan to fish. He taught Rohan not to drink the salted water. He kept Rohan alive.
But his subconscious pulled the obsidian away and jammed it into the shoulder of the Gembound he was staring at. It was certainly a bear. It was a really, really large bear. It had eyes of fire. Warm, warm eyes of fire. Matching eyes. It had two eyes that were the same. Rohan didn't. He only had one eye. They confirmed that.. together. And the bear nearly lost an eye in the process.
He was shaking more than he realized.
He was in shock and still awfully nauseous. Without knowing what else to do, he twitched a stupid smile and said, "You got really big, Leon." His voiced cracked and he wasn't even sure if it reached across the small channel between them.