After Pride had given her her extra life, Amazon had taken to exploring Pisces but...she had become lost. She was just a small lizard, after all, and she'd never visited Pisces before. She didn't even realize that she had completely left the cave and found herself in another. It took her a while to even recognize Polaris. But she did, at last, and her heart sank.
She'd completely left Pride there. He'd given her life and time and she'd run away without him. How ungrateful.
It was a very confusing emotion to have, though. Because on one hand, she knew that it had been selfish of her to be given time and run away with it to do with it what she pleased but on the other, such an opportunity, a full cycle of life and health, and she could do whatever she wanted. One more chance. She wanted to spend it the way she wanted to spend it.
She found herself walking along the crystal river. She leaned over, looking at herself in the reflection of the clear water. She had never seen the scales near her gem looking so good. Pride's crystal hat was still there, and it was no more comfortable then it had been before, but it was doing its job, easier too since Tenzin's magic had cured her.
And then, of course, she had apparently learned nothing from the last time she had observed herself in the river. Her claws slipped on the slick edge of the river and, with a squeak, she tumbled in and was immediately picked up by the current. Amazon cried out with horror as she lost all grip and direction and was lost to the waves.
Since the olympics, Lamia had actually found Polaris's crystal river to be a good spot to hang out. She wasn't as comfortable in it as she was in the waters of Pisces, of course since no part of Polaris was as deep, as dark, or as cold but she grew stronger every day fighting against the current and listening to the conversations of passing land-dwellers, as it was the busiest of the caves, taught her more words. She still hated her voice with passion but it was, at least, a voice.
She was doing morning exercises, keeping herself completely still (or at least as still as she could be), facing against the current, pushing herself so that her force equaled that of the water. It was extremely difficult and took all of her concentration to get just right - it would be much easier to just fight as hard as she could and go against the stream but holding herself in equilibrium like this was exhausting.
For a moment she thought she heard a distant squeak but she brushed it off in favor of concentration. But then, not a minute later, a small...thing came hurtling down the river. She didn't really think about it but one of her spindly arms snaked forward and grabbed the lizard as she went hurtling by. For a moment it almost slipped from her grasp but then she grabbed harder and held it tightly. But not too tightly because it was spiky and she thought it might tear through the webbing on her hands.
Now that she wasn't concentrating the river was beginning to push her back but she didn't notice, just continue to move her tail to keep herself in place. She looked at the lizard, curious, wondering what it was and why it was in the water, when she saw its terrified eyes staring at her and Lamia realized with a jolt that it probably breathed air.
She swiftly turned and threw herself from the river with a powerful thrust of her tail. Her top half burst from the water and flopped onto the riverbed, although she quickly slid back in enough for her gills to be submerged. She set the sopping-wet lizard down on the ground and waited for it to recover from its shock.
The current was quick to throw the tiny lizard without mercy into its depths. Amazon closed her eyes and curled into a ball out of instincts. Did she really go through everything, survive all those cycles, be blessed by Pride and Tenzin only to fall into the river to drown? Was this how she was going to die?
Maybe it was better then the poisoning of her gem, at least.
But she didn't really have much time to consider it since she suddenly felt something smack into her side and she came to a halt. For a second she almost slipped, but then she was moving, just in the opposite direction of the waves. She was too terrified to look, though, and only curled up tighter.
The water around her suddenly disappeared and she was flying through the air and slamming to the ground, although there was something there that cushioned her fall. Whatever had been holding her released her and she slid onto the rocks.
She stayed there, curled in a ball, shocked, until she finally had the bravery to uncurl herself and open her eyes, looking up at her savior. She blinked. What...was that?
Unlike the last time, when she had been saved by a wolf with wings, this was not something she'd ever seen before, with a face that vaguely reminded her of a primate, although definitely fish-like as well, and seaweed growing off the back of its head. She stared at it for a second and opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out except for another terrified squeak.
Lamia stared down at the lizard, waiting for it to say something. Maybe a thank you. Preferably a thank you. Or, well, anything. But it seemed to be quite tongue tied. Maybe it couldn't speak at all. Maybe all Lamia had done was save some poor Lesser from the water.
She tilted her head, confused. Did that mean that she could eat it? It was pretty spiky, it would probably make chewing difficult. Besides, she had tried land-food before and they had been uncomfortably warm and dark-flavored. Disgusting. Nothing like the clean, wet, and cool taste of fish.
She raised one of her hands and brought it forward, poking at the lizard. She should say something.