ORIGIN

There were several honeycombed spaces between the taller spires of the interlocking crystals. Some of these looked like tunnels--and if Scorch followed them, it would take long minutes to squirm through their smaller gaps, and fly through the larger spaces, only to find dead ends.

Undoubtedly, there would be trial-and-error; there would be a great deal of time spent in the simple act of searching, and ruling out this direction and that. The labyrinth of Gemini was just that, and its high ceiling was hardly any exception.

It would take time--hours, even days of searching if he were checking throughout the entire ceiling--but if Scorch thought to search near the place where the waterfall poured forth, up in its higher reaches, he might speed his search up a tad. Either way, he would find another space: a few gaps here and there, almost forming another little tiny tunnel. Only this time, instead of a dead end, there was an overhang; and a long, narrow gap, stretching from the crystal into dull, damp rock beyond, up high along the outer wall.

It would take exploring to see where this one went; if the owl had a decent sense of smell it might have given him warning odors of faint must and rot, but alas, he did not. He would hear distant, quiet dripping, likely moisture beading and falling away farther down the darkness; his owl's eyes would pick out the shape of the tunnel where it stretched away into shadows.

Though... to call it a tunnel would be misleading, perhaps. It was only a crack, a gap extending the natural structure of Gemini, and it likely didn't go very far. It was only perhaps two feet wide, and three feet wide--impossible to fly through, and a squeeze for a large owl--but only exploration would tell how far it stretched.

There was, indeed, a faint sense of green beyond. It was far up the tunnel (if the nondescript fracture in the rock could be called as much) and spread out, as if a small area had been carpeted in grasses or, perhaps, mosses and the like.

Here, in a forgotten alcove, a little bit of greenery had flourished. At its heart, it was just a cluster of moss and ferns that had somehow taken root in this gap above the crystals, a crack in Gemini's wall. And it took a little squeezing--or a smaller creature--to get into, so it was no wonder that it had gone untouched for so long, even by Lesser hands.

...For the most part.

The moisture beading up here was in part due to the nearby waterfall, whose rush echoed in this narrow space.

It was pitch black here, this deep in; the orb-light could not reflect this far even a little. If Scorch had no method of creating light, it might be wise to go and get some. Otherwise, he would need to search by touch alone, and that might be unwise; it would be impossible to pick out any particular plant from this carpet of greenery through plant sense alone.

There were, after all, at least mosses coating the floor; vines hung from the very low uneven ceiling just a few feet up above, and ferns were packed into every available open space. If there were anything more, Scorch would need light--or risk feeling his way around--to find it.

The glowing moss revealed carpets of... well, moss; tufts of grass sprouted here and there, with small ferns unfurling in the dark moisture.

Tucked into a back corner was a small, sickly-looking sort of plant; or was it a plant-? Perhaps a foot tall (and thus barely small enough for Scorch to carry, if he could even get his talons safely into or around it), this thing seemed thin and lacking color. Parts had gone yellow or brown, and looked distinctly soggy. But overall it had the appearance of a large pitcher plant: a tube-like central organ rimmed with redder lips at the top.

Its eyes opened, gleaming in the light of the glowing moss, and watched Scorch with wary weariness.

Scorch has discovered the Crystal Pitcher Plant. This creature is a Lesser Gembound plant mimic, and the last of its kind. Its fate lies in Scorch's hands, though for now, it may be found in the Lesser Gembound Guide.

For a long moment, the pitcher plant-creature simply sat there, looking like... well, a plant.

With eyes, of course, that stared blankly at Scorch.

At length it pushed itself slowly forward: an eldritch, shuffling shamble of some weak few inches, roots and vines pulling up from the rock and dragging along behind it. It wasn't clear if the thing was trying to chase Scorch--to try and eat the larger Gembound--or if it was doing something else entirely.

But for now, at least, it was following... if very, very slowly, and very weakly.