Craning her neck to look down the tunnel, Lorelei realizes there's a lot of places down there. She'd taken one path, but who knows where the other goes. "Orion. Shiny? Pretty?" is what she asks, now curious about rooms beyond. "I was born in..." she starts, but trails off as she struggles to think of the name of the room. "It was. Pisces. Yes, Pisces. Lots of water, coming down and roaring!"

She grins back at Acheron, head bobbing. "Yes, magic! Here, I'll show you!" she proclaims, before stilling and focusing inside. Cooler. Cooler, she wills.

Almost immediately, ice crystals begin to form from the water splashed on Lorelei's face, and in the waves around her flippers and tail. "See! Cold!"

@Acheron

Pisces, she thought, musing. She thought she knew which cave that was--but she'd never been there herself.

Lorelei's magic widened her eyes. "Oh!" she cried, surprised and impressed. It made sense, in some way--a creature of cold water, able naturally to float (in Acheron's mind, a magic in and of itself), could make icy water too!

It reminded her a little of a magic she had--but one that did quite the opposite; and, fascinated, Acheron stepped back to display it. "That's so cool!" (The pun did not occur to her.) "I can do--the other way? Not that hot, but I can do warm!" She squinted, bracing herself a little, and made the attempt to demonstrate.

The little shimmer of air that rose around her was just that--little, and a shimmer--but it was noticeably warmer. Her face lit up. How great was this?! One Gembound that could make stuff cold; another that could make stuff warm. Together, they could do... stuff! Probably! (Acheron didn't know what kind of stuff, but it seemed like it was probably important somehow.)

"Can you do anything else?" she asked, enthusiasm pouring out with hopeful tone. "And--can you tell me more about Pisces?" She still wasn't sure if she was thinking of the right cave; just a place of "cold waterfalls and pools" that had been described to her, as somewhere to look for the "good Master," Tenzin, if she ever needed him. But she'd never been there herself, and now she wondered what it was really like--and why Lorelei was so far from home.

@Lorelei

Another quizzical tilt of the head. "Warm. Like Fahl, met before." Her mind wanders back to the lizard - he'd shown the same magic of warming up the water and air, as Acheron demonstrates. Either way, magic is still exciting to watch, and she barks happily.

Though, she's never tried anything else. "I can try... but no idea if work." She felt around with her magic, and there didn't seem to be anything else there right now.

"Pisces. The water falls down and roars. Fish hide in pools. Mossy wet rocks. Fahl lives there," she explains, thinking of all the major features. That seemed like a good enough description of the room, right?

@Acheron

She focused for a moment, as the spell faded, on keeping herself warm--the water was pretty cold, though its lapping felt pleasant. The bark startled her, just a little; she flinched, but only out of surprise. She realized it was a sort of happy sound? Or excited, maybe. And it felt oddly familiar.

Acheron, testing the sound--nearly missing what Lorelei said next--barked back. She tried the sound out, and then wagged her fawn's tail, pleased with how it sounded. Barking was good! Oh--but Lorelei was still talking, and she tilted her head to one side, listening.

Despite the seal's limited vocabulary, her description was pretty. Poetic, even. Acheron found herself imagining the roar of falling water, the shimmer of scales as fish darted half-hidden through shadowed pools, and the verdant moisture of the mossy rocks. She didn't know, though, what a Fahl was--this name the seal had mentioned twice. "Fahl is--another Gembound?" she ventured, uncertain. "Pisces sounds really pretty!"

She didn't say more, but she found herself wondering: was there another stranger out there who shared her form of magic? She hadn't, to her knowledge, met anyone like that yet. Unless making something cold was the same sort? Acheron puzzled over this for a long moment, and then finally concluded I have no idea.

@Lorelei

Acheron's barking makes her grin. She sits there happily, about to bark back, but then Acheron asks her questions. "Yes. Fahl is... scaly. Colorful. Quiet," is what she supplies, thinking back to him.

And Pisces, well, it was all she'd known until she'd made the effort to crawl all the way here. "Pisces is wet. And cool. Both good." Lorelei's not sure if she'd find her way back there, or explore more, but she was definitely doing it by water this time.

@Acheron

Acheron considered. "Scaly," she was neutral on; she didn't know a lot of Gembound with scales. "Colorful" sounded great, and fun, and she immediately wished that she could meet this "Fahl" person. And "quiet?" Well, "quiet" kind of sounded boring (she was too much a child to realize that even the thought might be a bit of an insult), but maybe they were shy. And colorful would probably make up for that, anyway, right?

As for other caves, Pisces still sounded nice. Acheron leaned back a little, wondering how to repay Lorelei's gift of information. "Have you been to Polaris? It's the place with the big zappy crystal! It's got water, too, and lots of glowy... things," she settled on, unsure really how to define glowing mosses and gemstones both. "Where else have you been?" She almost wanted to explore together, but...

Well. The mental image of her either floundering helplessly in water, or poor Lorelei stuck traversing land... Neither sounded good. Which was sad, because Lorelei seemed fun. She kinda wanted to get to know her better.

"What sort of things do you eat?" Acheron asked, abruptly.

That seemed like a good starting point--right?

Polaris was new to Lorelei - but she was transfixed by Acheron's description. "Oooo, crystal! Want to see! Crystals!" she declares, splashing a little closer to Acheron. "Will have to see! Will find!"

Even if that is a little lacking in forethought - Lorelei had yet to find any aquatic tunnels, and flopping her way up and down rocky paths was not an enjoyable experience. She'll figure it out later.

"Where else... nowhere really, except in water. Water deep. Lots of water," she does her best to explain. There's a lot below the surface in these caves.

She tilts her head, thinking a little bit, before Acheron's next question startles her back to reality. "Oh, um. Fish, or shrimp. Those are crunchy." A beat. "Would you like one?"

@Acheron (i am so sorry for the double ping i forgot to change accounts)

"I could show you the way-?" Acheron began, before stopping abruptly and eyeing Lorelei again. She'd forgotten for a moment that the seal seemed to be aquatic; Acheron didn't actually know if there was any sort of water-route to the caves she'd been describing.

...Maybe?

But the thought was pushed away by Lorelei's other answer: food! She scrunched up her nose a bit, trying to think: had she ever heard of "fish?" She thought so, but she wasn't really sure what they were, and she'd definitely never heard of shrimp. The idea of crunchy kernels of food goodness were interesting, though, and so her answer was a bright (if wholly uncertain) "Yes?" Manners then took over, and she added a hasty "Please!"

She shook the water from her fur, almost as an afterthought, and set about sniffing along the shoreline before Lorelei. Her tail wagged a bit. Were there shrimp here, maybe--or over there? "What's a shrimp?" she asked, a little belatedly, but now she was fascinated by the idea of a new food to try.

@Lorelei (it's fine!!)

Seeing another cave is deeply interesting. But she did just waddle her way all the way down here, and that wasn't very fun. Not that she regrets it, she now has a new friend!

"I'll go get some!" Lorelei chirps. She begins turning around, splashing in the waves and sand as she nearly launches herself in the water before Acheron speaking again stops her.

She needs to think a little before she can answer Acheron's question. "A shrimp... lots of legs. Crunchy. White or grey or orange." she explains, hitting all the points she thinks are important to know about a shrimp.

"Be back!" she explains, before diving into the water. She heads a little bit out, trawling along the bottom for any tasty morsels. A water crawler sits next to a rock, picking the bones of a fish clean, and its none the wiser to Lorelei's approach until its too late. Her jaws snap around it.

She heads back up to the surface, shrimp in her mouth, and peeks her head out, looking for Acheron on the beach, before swimming along back to shore.

@Acheron

Lots of legs-?

Well, that was an alarming thought. It sounded creepy. Like spiders. Do spiders live underwater? And it sounded a little sad, too; Acheron had never eaten anything but plants. Faced with the prospect of taking a Lesser's life, she'd balked. But turning down a gift that Lorelei--her new friend--was catching for her?

That would be cruel, too.

So Acheron fidgeted, waiting a little uncertainly. When Lorelei reappeared, head bobbing above the water, Acheron could make out the many-legged little shape clamped in the seal's jaws. She squinted, curiosity taking her. "Whoa! I've never seen anything like that," she cried, as Lorelei drew closer. "Is it--dead?" she went on, eyes wide.

If it was, she'd try to eat it, but--the idea of having to kill it made her a little queasy.

@Lorelei