The canine continued to come further into the water, paws splashing as she began her descent into its cold depths. The dog then made her way over to him, he could feel her nose pushing into his hide and see her from the corner of his eye as she moved alongside him. "Is here!" He called out cheerfully as he waved the flipper, hoping that the sound and the movement would guide her to it. He would wait for a little while, feeling her try to take a grip along her fin or his body. The dolphin was growing more and more excited by the minute. He wanted to begin their swim! He wanted it to happen now! The dog was ready right? She would be fine, yes? It was usually at this point that his clients would call out that they were ready when he felt their paws secure around him. Surely he could go out now! Everything would be perfectly fine!

Yep... He could wait no longer.

"We go! We go!" For better or worse he kicked his tailfin and sent them forward, faster than he normally would but he had more confidence in this land critter. Whether that was warranted or not was up to debate.

"Weeeeeeee! Much fun, ya?" He whistled as he began to accelerate, wanting the dog to feel the rush of water whipping by and enjoy every second of it. Surely she must be having lots of fun!
____

233+
Magdalena
---
6/10

"Talking"
Thinking

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN

I'M THE MONSTER, I'M THE VILLAIN
WHAT PERFECTION, WHAT PRECISION

Thankfully, he produced enough noise that she could find him through the dark of her sightlessness - through the swishing of the water and the sound of his cheerful voice, she awkwardly sidled up next to the dolphin and slung her paws around his sides. She wasn't strong enough to hold onto him like this alone, but maybe he'd take it easy on her... Oh, she hoped so. Her hind paws were in the water now, and she could feel the current still trying to carry her away. If she slipped she'd probably end up stumbling and drifting through the river to some destination unknown, or maybe it would take her beneath the surface, and... Thinking about it instilled a chilling fright in her. She frowned slightly, adjusting herself.

She hadn't been ready by the time Eeya decided it was time to go. Well, she probably could have been, but she didn't feel ready. Anyways, he announced that they were going, and Magdalena's eyes widened in alarm. She squeezed him and ducked her chin against his back, then his tailfin splashed and they launched forward into the river. Magdalena yelped, slipped a little, then held on tighter - but the water was splashing her face now and getting in her eyes, and she closed them against the discomfort. But now they were going too fast. She didn't know what was happening any more, they were breezing through the water and it was cold as it washed over her back and her sides, and suddenly she couldn't focus on her other senses, she didn't know where she was beyond within the water.

Magdalena wanted to answer him, to tell him to stop, but then he picked up the pace. The chop of the waters below was enough to drag her off of him, his slick body too wet and rubbery for her to hold onto for any longer. Her body slid free from him, abandoning her in the water - she didn't know how far she was from the shore - but now she didn't have a buoy, and her paws scrambled in search of purchase. Magdalena cried out, splashing as she struggled to keep herself aloft, thrashing among the current of the river. "Eeya - help - help! I fell!" She called, but the current continued to nibble at her paws and try to sweep her away. Her nose fell beneath the surface a few times, causing her to choke and cough as water threatened to flood her lungs.

@Alexander

Alexander had never been to Polaris before. It was the biggest room he had been in yet, and it was beautiful here. So many colors! Yet, oddly, there were… scorch marks in places, especially around the big blue tower-like structure in the middle of the room. He spent time exploring here and there, wondering if anyone lived here. As he wandered closer to the river, he began to pick up noises – there were other Gembounds nearby. He now made it a point to aim for the river, which, in hindsight he would decide was a very good idea. Because as he got closer and closer, those fairly neutral-sounding voices quickly grew louder and one of them seemed… alarmed.

There was a small (compared to him) white Gembound splashing about in the river, and every time her head popped above the water, she made distress calls. She was… drowning! Shit! Xander took off at a run, and finally his front paws splashed into the shallows. On instinct, he wanted to yank his paws up onto dry land, but he ignored the icky water. There was a drowning Gembound to save! There was another creature here, too. A greyish, smooth creature who seemed built for swimming. But Xander ignored him. He quickly assessed the situation, deciding that the distressed lady wasn’t actually too far into the river.

Xander waded in a bit more, then leaned out and grabbed the dog by the scruff of her neck with his teeth, trying his hardest not to harm her. But she was thrashing about in a panic and he had to hold on fairly tightly so she wouldn’t slip out of his grasp. Slowly, he began to back up, pulling her body along with him and up out of the deeper waters, until they were both on mostly-dry land. He lowered her head to the ground slowly and then let go of her, sniffing at her gently to check if she was all right.

@Magdalena @Eeya

((Madi, I kinda powerplayed here, but I assumed from our c-box conversation that doing so was okay, because it was necessary in order to save Mag. If you want me to change something just tell me.))

If only he'd known of his companion's dismay perhaps then he would have stopped, would have slowed down, would have gone back for her but alas he did not. His high pitched giggles drowned out any of the canine's complaints. Normally he would not have been so careless but had held high confidence in he white canine based on assumptions. Perhaps he wouldn't make assumptions anymore after this day...

The dolphin swam clear to the center of the river before stopping at all. It was then that he noticed the weight, or lack thereof on his back. "Magdaleeeenaaaaa?" He called out playfully, suspecting that she was playing a trick on him. It was only after he turned and looked around that he saw she was being pulled out of the water by a fluffy-headed-lion. Oh dear... Had his honorary dolphin friend come to rescue her? Rescue? Oh no! Had she been drowning? Oops! He'd never lost a land critter before!

With a squeak of dismay the dolphin high-finned it back towards the shore, sapphire eyes staring up curiously at the pair. "Oh? Did Magdalena drown in water? Oh! Eeya no mean to make her drown in waters! He no was looking hard because she was blind!" He poked his beak towards the white canine, shuffling at her fur. "Oooohhh, Eeya sorry! Eeya no mean to make her drown! No no! White-fluffy-doggie get up!" Had he killed someone? Oh no! Oh no! He never wanted to hurt anyone! "Usui! Usui! Help her! Help her!
____

253
Magdalena @Alexander
---
6/10

"Talking"
Thinking

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN

I'M THE MONSTER, I'M THE VILLAIN
WHAT PERFECTION, WHAT PRECISION

It had all happened too quickly for her to really wrap her head around it. She was splashing in the water, struggling to keep her head above the surface, gasping for air but it was hard to tell where she was. Her hind paws grappled on the slippery rock beneath, but she would end up falling or losing her grip and crashing back into the river, and its currents would hunger to sweep her away once more. She sputtered, and water found its way back into her throat, into her lungs. She coughed and wheezed and tried to push away to no avail. And then some force grabbed her by the back of her neck and she knew that it was death coming for her, finally taking her into its well deserved embrace. Fear swallowed her whole, and for a couple seconds Magdalena blacked out from the world.

When she woke, she was on the ground. Her first thought was that she had died. She must have - she had water in her lungs, she couldn't breathe, she still couldn't breathe. Her body gave an involuntary spasm and she coughed, sputtering water from between her jaws. Her paws reached out and grasped for purchase on something, anything in panic, but could only swipe at the empty air until she met the warm skin of another. Warmth. Her Fire? She didn't realize how cold she was. Magdalena's entire body was shivering, shuddering with that bite of icy cold, and all she could do was clamber towards the warmth. She needed the heat.

Meanwhile, Eeya's voice slowly bled into her mind, and suddenly she could hear him apologizing profusely for nearly drowning the blind dog. She didn't have the capacity to respond emotionally to him right now - she didn't know if she disdained him for his carelessness or if she forgive him for being naive. All she cared about now was the warmth. With a gasp wracking her chest, she slowly rolled onto her stomach and crawled towards the warmth, straw eyes staring wide at the nothingness ahead of her.

Alexander watched the small-ish canine in concern, trying his hardest to block out the idiotic ramblings of the dolphin who had, from his perspective, nearly drowned the poor woman. Finally, he could take the dolphin’s yelling no longer, and he snapped, “Shut up!” He could get in no more than that, however, because the drenched lady had just knocked into him a little, spasming and coughing as she expelled water from her lungs. Xander leaned down and nudged her, helping her onto her belly, so she wouldn’t choke on the water in her lungs. She seemed to respond to his touch, and crawled to him slowly, staring at him, but not really seeing him.

He was completely ignoring the dolphin at this point, entirely focused on whatever the lady needed. She attempted to press her body against him. “My Lady,” he murmured in concern, and laid down beside her, pressing his body against her shivering form and trying to will his own body heat to wrap around her. He placed one arm gently over the top of her back, pulling her against his belly and side, where most of his heat emanated from. Not for the first time, he wished he knew at least some Magic – maybe a heat spell? Or a drying spell? Did those exist? He didn’t know.

He glared at the dolphin, only now remembering its existence. “What were you thinking?” he demanded, tail curling possessively around one of the dog’s legs. “What would you have done if I had not been here? Clearly you are too inept to save a drowning Gembound.” He exhaled with much force, attempting to calm himself. His show of anger would not do anyone any good. He had helped divert a disaster, and that was good enough. “Forgive my anger,” he said, more gently. “I spoke rashly, out of fear for what might have been.” He turned to look at the dog again. “Are you coherent, My Lady?”

@Eeya @Magdalena

The dolphin tread the water his shrill calls echoing out until Usui roughly told him to "shut up". Shocked into submission Eeya fell silent, simply observing as the two land critters shared their heat. His blue eyes looked guiltily up at the pair as he waited for their verdict. Perhaps if he didn't feel bad for nearly drowning one of his charges he would have taken offense to Usui speaking so roughly to him but instead he just watched.

"Eeya thinking about swimming. Swimming so fun he forgot to look back for blind-fluffy-white-doggie." His head gave the slightest of tilts as he pondered thew word "inept" which he'd never heard a land critter use before. "No no! Eeya dolphin, Usui, they good at saving land critters and swimming, remember?" If it wasn't obvious, he had no idea what it meant. Probably for the better. He didn't understand why Usui was being so aggressive either. Weren't they friends? Hadn't he made the lion an honorary dolphin for a reason? Forgiveness was a thing. Then, it came. The dolphin bobbed his head up and down excitedly, obviously pleased to have been forgiven so easily after the outburst. "Eeya no is mad! He forgive you!" And just like that all the guild was washed away with the new good feeling of being forgiven.
____

220
Magdalena @Alexander
---
6/10

"Talking"
Thinking

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN

i wanna close this thread, so,,,,

I'M THE MONSTER, I'M THE VILLAIN
WHAT PERFECTION, WHAT PRECISION

Everything came and went in waves. The words leaving the lips of the Gembounds around her, they were quiet and nonexistent or they were whispers amid the surge of the river, or they were screaming, deafening in her ears. Then she would feel the warmth and it would comfort her, seeded deep in her chest, extending to her limbs, reaching around her ribs, heating her blood. Until it was too hot. She would feel a flash of it in her chest, in her lungs. And at the same time the heat would diminish until she was left with naught but a shiver, as though her body couldn't decide what it wanted. Ultimately, it would be the coldness to win over. The lion's heat served well enough to renew her surface temperature, but her bones had taken a chill that wouldn't leave. Her teeth began to chatter. Her lungs accrued a phlegm that wouldn't leave no matter how much she coughed.

Worst of all was consciousness. It ebbed in and out, as though darkness was tugging on the fringes of her mind and beckoning her away. Magdalena's brows furrowed. Somewhere beyond, the lion was yelling at the dolphin and the dolphin was begging explanation, but in the end, she couldn't remember what either of them had said. Her eyes closed and she nearly fell forward, so tempted to let unconsciousness consume her - she'd been drained by her near death, and already she could feel sickness stirring. When the lion turned his words to her, those straw eyes fluttered behind their lashes. She lifted her head ever so slightly, blindly searching his visage, his gaze, but her own was distant. It did not adhere to his features, instead probing beyond his head to the abyss of the cave yawning around them.

"Ah-" She stammered, blinking. Another cough wracked her body, causing her to duck her head. She pressed into his chest again. "-c-cold -" Magdalena shivered. She had to get back to Nemesis. Maybe the lion would take her. She so wished that she could forgive the dolphin; it hadn't been his fault, unless he'd been actively trying to kill her, but for what reason would he do that? Her nose pointed towards him, but she couldn't think of much to say. She wanted her Fire. "- take me back-" The dog wheezed and leaned against the lion. She extended her legs, wobbling, shuddering, and stepped.

It would be a long journey, but maybe with his help, she'd make it.

exit Magdalena back to Nemesis w/ Alexander maybe? 8)