[HATCH] holy mackerel, batman!

Cra-ack. Ploop!' The sound was almost deafeningly loud in this place of quiet. Disturbing the gently flowing waters and blissful peace was a chyrsalis, high up next to one of the waterfalls. It has just begun to show signs of the life inside.

'Crra-ack.' More of the outer pyrite crumbles, sploshing into the waters below. Then, all movement stills. For one beat. Then two.

Then the chyrsalis bursts, sending tiny shards of pyrite scattering across the tunnel. A single larger shape falling with the amniotic fluids slips down the tunnel walls then, just as with the shards before it, drops into the water with a 'bloop'.

This new life for a moment seems stunned, disoriented, belly scales facing the surface and dorsal fin pointing towards the sands below. And completely frozen in place. Another beat passed, then a forth.

Then, the fish rights itself, wriggling in the waters. Its tiny face breaks the surface, looking upward from where it had fell, the remains of pyrite that clung to the wall. As the case with most fish, it's difficult to discern what it may be thinking or feeling. And, before anyone has a chance to try and guess, it dips back into the crystal clear waters.

At least, they would be crystal clear if chunks of pyrite and a falling salmon hadn't disturbed the sands below making this spot particularly murky. The fish was free, but it seemed at a loss. Idly drifting around the waters, around rocks. Letting the sands, rocks and crystals brush against its own scales, getting a feeling for these new surrounds. It didn't seem to have a goal in mind as it drifted.

Just an aimless wander. No doubt punctuated by one thought in particular: Now what?

This particular tunnel had gone silent compared to cycles past. Perhaps that explained in some small part why Richter hadn't traveled down here and to Andromeda beyond for a spell. Passing through Pisces, he never caught a snippet of the haunting whispers that'd lured him and countless other Gembound all that often anymore, and so his curiosity had turned elsewhere without that intriguing reminder of the dimly lit cavern and its myriad secrets he'd yet to fully examine. He'd ventured through dungeons and attended raucous, crowd-pleasing events; maybe now, after all that noise, his mind had finally opened to the possibility of quiet again.

He pushed through the moss curtain draped over the Pisces-side entrance to the tunnel, and a pang of regret rippled through his pressing paws at their emptiness. His last journey through here having happened long before he'd ever received the pleasure of meeting his dear rabbit friend Harvey, it truly was a shame he hadn't brought the fellow in tow. Hopping this path had been such a whim that he'd left him to graze the grasses of Pegasus instead. Surely he'd have enjoyed a chance at sampling the glowing flora this new location would've had to offer.

"Ah, well," Richter mumbled to himself, batting away the moss which clung to his unwieldy ears as he strode into the tunnel proper, "I suppose there's always a next time."

Without Gembounds crowding the area in pursuance of odd specters, it became more apparent how much of the time spent traveling was through cool waters and not the narrow strips and chunks of stone that sometimes ran along and appeared amongst them. Not overly fond of soaking his feet and finding keeping to the bamboo groves bordering the tunnel every so often safer but more boring, Richter almost made traversal into a game, leaping from one elevated spot to the next. On an imperfect landing, one of the kangaroo's legs slid over slick rock and plunged into the stream.

A better jumper than most, the blunderer sent a dumbfounded stare at his own limb as if it was a stranger to him. Then he chuckled, embarrassed. "Uhmm... whoops?"

Not once did it occur to him what such an intrusion might have seemed to anyone aquatic and newly hatched swimming nearby.

When this new gembound thought of life, so far it had been thinking of rocks, water, sand. There hadn't been much else, after all. The world above the waters wasn't of much interest so far; it only seemed difficult to navigate and was dreadful to breathe in.

That was until a large mass from the surface crashed into the salmon's world.

It was challenging to ignore the sounds of movement from the world on the surface. Not that the new creature had been loud, but that the tunnel was so quiet that even the gentle rustle of bamboo or the soft sounds of feet landing on rocks had sounded as abrupt as a landslide.

Naturally, this had sparked a curiosity in the small fry; it wasn't alone in this world. Simultaneously a comforting discovery, and a horrifying one. It wasn't alone, but there were unknowable strangers within this world.

Unknowable, which had very quickly become knowable as the fry was met by foot to the face. The motion disturbed a cloud of sand and kicked the waters in a torrent, which for a fry it was. Unable to fight against the current at its size, the salmon was forced to go with the flow, twisting and turning and gently bumping against the sands at the bottom of the pools. It found itself shaken, but unharmed.

The gembound, after righting itself for the second time, stuck its head out of the water. Not quite breaching the water tension as it ogled up at the owner of the furred foot. There were a lot of questions about this discovery. But, first, it had to be on even footing (heh) as the gembound. The salmon fry dipped below the surface

It didn't know of the existence of magic, but when it focused on the furred gembound, it could feel its head warming. Which, first instinct made it wonder if it was getting sick. It was when something pinched its dorsal that it was snapped out of the thought! Unaware it was its own magic backfiring, the salmon launched itself forward. It felt weightless for a few moments as it soared towards the large gembound, then felt more than a little foolish as it landed on the rock in front of the furred gembound's feet.

This was not a good start.