ORIGIN - ill fated creatures

Ah, the cool air of Pisces. With a light skip in his step, Rohan exited Tunnel M on their descent from Fornax; again, wandering the cave elsewhere. He did enjoy Pisces and its resident ice bird, who was kind and gentle in nature, always willing to give him much in terms of wisdom. Glancing only briefly toward the falls and lagoon from the entrance, Rohan instead turned and followed the West wall around, paws breaking through small streams of trickling water running off the wall.

He had given enough breadth of space between his body and the wall for his son to adventure along the slick rocks, if he dared. Still, Rohan had chosen the West wall so that he might see Prata along the wall either way, if the feline did choose to follow by climbing or not; and if he slipped, Rohan wanted to know before he had to hear it. It might only be a second's difference—and Prata was plenty cycles old to look after himself now—but that didn't stop the wolf from worrying anyhow.

Ready to take a short break at the ponds and get a quick drink, Rohan flicked his tail eagerly. The pond he had chosen, however, had fish floating instead of swimming, which is what he enjoyed most about the ponds. Their silvery-scaled sides bobbed on the surfaces, smooth bellies peeking from the tips of the water. For a moment, all he could do was watch their strange weightlessness. His eye glanced toward other ponds, the same shimmering of dead fish floating on some, but not on others. Some ponds even had drowned rats.

"Prata," his voice warned quietly as his features stiffened. "The fish are dead."

Why had the fish died? Single eye and opal rolled back to the pond at his feet, nose lowering slightly to sniff at the water. It did not smell too good. Sour. Well, rotting fish. Something unnatural had happened.

Instinctively, cycles of self-meditation kicked in and his body regulated his increasing heartbeat, keeping him calm. His head turned to search for Prata, gain his input.

"Something has upset the balance, son. This is not right."

PRATA
put all your faults to rest, you can be king again

prata hopped along the ridges of the cave wall, his tail flicking up-to-down constantly as he adjusted his balance on each small, slippery ledge. a wide eye focused intently on the stone he walked on, while his ears took the job of listening for his father's presence to follow into the pretty blue room pisces. it was at times like these that prata really did wish he had that second eye to judge the distance with, or even to see his father's location on peripheral vision.

moving into the room, a strange scent filled his nose. pisces usually smelled just like wet, like the oily scent of fish, like moss when he was this close to the walls. and it still did, but today it seemed... off.

but perhaps it was just him. he trusted rohan would bring it up if he noticed, anyways.

prata looked down from the rocks then to find his father padding out eagerly toward a pond for a drink, but something was odd about the water, something he couldn't quite tell from here... prata moved his head back down towards the ledges, carefully leaping down to join rohan for a drink (or maybe a snack, if he was lucky).

he was almost all the way down to the ground when he heard his name, and swiveled his ears forward to meet the sound. it was nervous, but prata simply assumed it had to do with his own being on the slippery ledges, or even just an example of the wolf's occasional odd habits of expressing himself.

it took him a moment to register the warning, so focused on his forepaws tentatively leading the way for the rest of his body to follow down the steep ledges down the wall. the fish are dead... the fish are dead? oh... that didn't usually... happen by itself...

prata's head whipped up as he fully realized what his father was saying. was that the smell? he wished it wasn't, and that he'd misunderstood and assumed the worst as he leaped the rest of the way down to the cold, moist rock floor of pisces, with surprisingly no issue, but he wouldn't notice it.

even though he was massive for his species, the heavy tabby was dwarfed in size by his large, white-furred canine father as he hurriedly pawed over to the pool rohan was standing over in shock.

indeed, the fish were dead. the smell of it made him feel a bit sick.

"they must be sick," he concluded abruptly. "perhaps something else died in the water and it's made them all sick. it smells like rot in here." his nostrils were flared in disgust.

"--i wouldn't drink the water," the cat added quickly when he realized he'd forgotten to say it, his tail flicking at the end in discomfort at the whole experience. it seems he wouldn't be getting that nice fishy snack, either...

"meow."
others' speech.

@Rohan

He nodded at Prata's words, staring silently into the pool at the floating fish bodies. What could have caused such a strange thing? Shuffling backwards a few steps, the wolf sat lazily—somewhat of a curious slouch—and hummed thoughtfully.

"Certainly not good, no..." he murmured, tapping his tail in thought. "Certainly wouldn't eat them, the rot is bad... the smell quite unnatural, even for dead fish left to rot at that..." Rohan glanced to the other pools that contained dead fish, some of them drowned rats. Still, he couldn't make out what might have happened. They hadn't exactly come here to be detectives though, and unfortunately their peaceful trek was interrupted by the seemingly diseased ponds of Pisces. Rohan enjoyed laying pondside and simply watching the fish while Prata enjoyed a snack; but that obviously wasn't happening today.

His lips tugged into a frown, eye settling back onto Prata.

"Maybe someone meddling with something they shouldn't have," he noted. His eye drifted up to the walls and the warrens. "Want to heads somewhere else, do some exploring? Some climbing?" He wasn't sure what else to offer since Pisces was his favorite room simply for the ponds and for Tenzin.

His voice lowered when he glanced back down, adding, "Anything you wanted to talk about?" Rohan knew, too, his son had a busy mind.

@Prata