The still water was disturbed with a brief ripple. A silvery fish or two darted by, close to the incline of the shore, pausing before they swivelled underneath the surface, twisting and diving further down into the trench of the river. And then came by Indigo.

In her first cycle she was small, only five or six feet long, but that obviously hadn't stopped her from practising her hunting skills. She pressed herself into the wall of the river and pushed herself down after the escapee silverfish, barely visible from the darkened depths.

When she saw one, barely glinting in the light leaking from Polaris above, she thrashed unceremoniously to push herself through the water. She reached out-- too slow, this time, as the fish barely slipped out of her rough fingers, but it didn't escape injury as it raked itself through a hooked claw.

Crimson plumed into the water like smoke. The fish faltered against the gash in its side, rendering one fin useless. It couldn't turn properly and began sinking further to the very bottom of the cave floor, though was scooped up into Indigo's hands before it hit the ground.

And then it was being crushed in her mouth.

The naga propelled herself upwards and broke the water with a crash, her hands scrambling to grab the shoreline. With the fish still in her maw, she pulled herself onto land and began to settle in by the river, tail coiling up next to her.

It was cold here-- colder than the water --but it was easier to eat up on land than it was underwater, she'd found. Content, she spat the fish into her hands and began peeling back scales and biting into pale flesh.

Today would be a good day, Indigo decided, glancing around Polaris as she chewed.

Indigo flinched, barely, looking down. For a moment she was more focused on horking down the fish, chewing and grinding her teeth together, before she took a closer look at the cat.

She knew of rats and cave deer but this one looked like neither-- maybe it'd be fine. It was talking, which didn't seem to make them much of a deer, or a rat. "Um," the naga replied brilliantly, glancing between cat and fish.

Surprisingly, she had to think about it. "I live in there?" She eventually answered, though the slight inflection implied she wasn't actually very sure if she lived in rivers at all. They weren't really rivers to begin with-- they were tunnels filled with water that ran beneath the caves.

A little stiffly, she offered the half-fish out. "You have to... hunt for them. Be quick." A pause. "... be able to swim."

There was an even longer pause as Indigo Eyes's elbows went back onto her coiled tail, leaning over to get a better look at Amberfrost. She at least knew that some land-creatures avoided the water unless it was to drink, but she was unsure what fate befell creatures like herself that were fine in either area.

Maybe it didn't matter, though. It's not like Amberfrost had those kinds of answers for her-- but the cat likely had answers to different questions.

"Where are you going?" She asked very mildly, her tone a little bland.

Indigo had to think about this, too.

She was definitely no expert in the subject of what land-creatures could or couldn't do-- the cat could try it but she knew in the back of her mind that she might drown in the process. Or, at the very least, scare the fish away. "Maybe," what was she landed on, as monotone as ever. "But the water is deep. If you fall in, you won't be able to breathe."

A moment was spent eating the rejected fish, peeling off sinew with her teeth. It only occurred to Indigo some seconds later that she could jump into the water to help Amberfrost if worst came to worst-- but for some reason, this reassurement was not voiced.

Instead, instructions were. "The edge is steep. Like a wall," crunch, chew, swallow. "You should wait for a fish to come near your--" side-eye, crunch, chew, "--feet and try to get it from there." Swallow.

She tipped her head back and down went the remains of the fish into the naga's maw, licking her lips before she went on. "I can try and get one for you. I need to eat a lot of fish."

Although Indigo's words were certainly... monotone, bland to listen to-- there was some sense of a genuine desire to help laced within them, even if Indigo herself was quite unsure on how she could help specifically. At least the uncertainty wasn't coming through, though.

The ribbony tail was starting to uncoil when she passed another glance to Amberfrost. "It goes in circles, I think. I don't know,"> came the admission. "There are water tunnels under these rooms. They go everywhere. There's-- a lot. It's... lonely, too."

She didn't sound particularly sad or lonely, at least. Maybe that's a plus.

Amberfrost wasn't wrong in assuming that Indigo's bland tone was just how she spoke. She was no older than the cat was, in a quite literal sense-- emotions and expressing them all rolled over into a pile.

She watched in silence, half-braced to grab Amberfrost or to dive back in after her. When she lunged, Indigo Eyes was splashed but it only reminded her of how dry her skin was getting, being above the surface of the water.

There was no contempt or jealousy-- Indigo had no idea what these really were, presently --but there was the motions of knowing the rituals of hunting. The naga leant in and helped Amberfrost haul the fish up away from the water.

"Like that," she said, with a dip of her head. "But you should be careful about what you catch." She bent down to briefly sniff the fish, rumbling faintly as the coppery scent of blood hit her nostrils, and she lounged back over onto her tail, casting briefly.

The air lost its humidity as she pulled it towards herself, wetting the tacky skin. A little more comfortable-looking, Indigo stretched and then deflated on over herself, speaking quietly. "You can't spend all your energy on just hunting. You have to save some of it for other things like walking and things."

She eyed the fish, the pond, then Amberfrost. "It's a good catch, though. It scared the fish." This last sentence wasn't so much a criticism as much as it was-- well, a fact. Very little fish remained in the water, frightened by one of their largest being abducted.

In Indigo's mind, that was just life.