The Fossa, running out of air, kicked awkwardly, reaching the surface of the water. Making sure to keep the glowing of the Gem in sight, he gulped down several lungfuls of air, before diving back down. He used his shoulder and side to push the floating gem to the shore. With his single eye, he could see the wind hopper bouncing on the edge of the shore.

He lunged forward, guiding the gem up and onto the shore, before stumbling forward, presenting it to the wind hopper.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Upon the shore the rabbit was certainly showing signs of glee at the successful rescue, hopping over to nudge the fossa in a show of appreciation before moving in to start moving the crystal further inland and in the direction of the room's nearest wall.

It had work to do, this would be the last one to move into storage before going to the next gathering spot. Black colorful gem-eye had helped out a lot though, perhaps they could come to? They deserved a reward for how much they had helped!

By the time this thought occurred to busy working bunny it had already gotten the blue gem halfway off the river bank. It had no way of communicating directly with gem's rescuer so instead it left the cargo sitting there and ran back to the fossa, squeaking before running back and forth between them and its target direction a few times.

Follow! It wanted to indicate. Reward! It wanted to imply.

Mongo sneezed, trying to clear the water from his nose, before planting his feet, shaking to clear his scruffy pelt of water. It didn't do much, other than stop him from dripping. He still felt chilly and damp, but it stopped him from making more of a mess.

He returned the wind hopper's nudge, understanding that it wouldn't be able to understand him if he tried to speak to it. So he turned to walk off, seeing that there was nothing more he could do.

So, admittedly, he was rather startled when the wind hopper suddenly came back, squeaking and bounding back and forth. Did it want him to follow it? From the way it was acting, he assumed so, and turned, walking after the wind hopper.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

The odd wind hopper squeaked in apparent approval as the magical black rainbow stone began to follow along. The going was slow at first pushing the sapphire off the river bank but once they hit more solid ground the pace increased tremendously with the bunny thwacking the gem meters away at a time before hopping forward and thwacking it again. The end result was a casual walking pace and the odd observation that here on land the creature seemed much too strong to be just a normal wind hopper.

After a long while of walking they finally arrived at a small cave along the room's wall, nondescript and well hidden by surrounding rocks. The bunny squeaked once more as it hit the stone inside where a clattering sound could be heard.

Inside the cave was a sight to behold! Gems and crystals of all shapes and sizes lined the walls in piles, some glowing and some flickering as their magic faded. Despite the grand sight, however, there was something indescribable that felt deeply wrong about the display aside from the fact that this behavior was atypical for wind hoppers.

Coming closer the smell of rot would hit the fossa, and a quick scan of the piles would shortly reveal its source. There among the gemstones was the mangled corpse of an echoing grey rat. Some greater gembound with a sick sense of humor had no doubt tortured this creature to death with the gem summon spell. The corpse was covered in small black spikes like spider legs originating from along its spine. The tendrils of unknown gemstone had wormed their way across its face piercing its eyes, piercing its ears, wrapping in loops around its lower jaw. The rest of its body had fared no better with sectioned spikes wrapping around its legs in a vice grip as though trying to make a second skeleton.

Most disturbing of all, however, was the dead echoing grey's neck, around which was wrapped what looked like a collar- elaborate in design save for the protrusions that reached down to puncture what would have been its lungs and heart. That rat had died in agony, and the similarly collared bunny was simply hopping past it to position the new sapphire just right. It squeaked at the fossa and patted one of the gem piles, as though inviting it to join the rest of the gemstones for whatever purpose they were gathered.

@Mongo

Mongo plodded after the wind hopper, fighting the urge to try and help. It seemed to be having trouble with the sapphire, but he didn't think it would be amiable to him helping it. Thankfully, once it had passed the river bank, it seemed to have an easier time of it, batting the gem forward a few strides, hopping forward, and then batting it forward again.

This continued on for a long while, and the Fossa found himself deep in his own thoughts, no longer paying any attention to the wind hopper. He was drawn out of them at a sudden clattering sound, and looked up to see the hopper knocking the stone into a cave.

The sight of the cave made his jaw drop. It was covered in more gems and crystals than he'd ever imagined seeing in one place. With their glow, he felt he should have been deeply odd. Instead, however, he felt heavily disturbed. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

He forced himself to follow the hopper, nearly retching as the scent of rot suddenly seemed to smack him in the face. His head snapped around frantically, trying to find the source of the scent, and it didn't take long for him to find it. There was a horribly mangled corpse of a grey rat, and he felt bile rise in his throat.

The rat had the same collar as the wind hopper. Had the wind hopper done this? Did whatever had done this to the grey rat plan on doing this to the wind hopper?

He shook his head 'no' at the wind hopper's gesturing, stepping back as though to leave.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

As the wind hoper waited eagerly for the black gem to join the pile so they could rest and then begin moving to the next cache it became more and more apparent that they didn't want their reward. Why though? Why would they want to go back out there? It was sad and lonely and dark and dangerous without any friends. Here they would be able to be together. Here they would be safe for as long as possible. Why did they want to die?

Small tears began to form in the bunny's eyes, not for itself but for the poor little magic gem that had helped it save a friend. It didn't want them to suffer! Was it that meat body? Yes, that had to be it! The corruption must be cleansed. Through its sniffles the bunny squeaked once at the wise old retired gatherer. They'd know what to do, right?

A horrible scraping sound like glass on glass filled the small cave as the rat corpse on the ground began to move. A single decaying leg grasped against the ground, supported by its invasive gem skeleton, then another, and in no time the spikey creature of rat was up on all limbs and staring at the fossa with long empty eyes sockets. After the shortest moment of silence that horrible screeching sound of crystalline sockets grinding into each other blared out and the creature of death shot forward to its prey. Destroy the corruption. Destroy. Rip the flesh from its bones. Make it perfect as them.

Seeing the tears gathering in the wind hopper's eyes, a pang of pity stung Mongo's heart. He desperately didn't want to make the wind hopper so sad, but he could tell nothing good would come of jumping onto the stones.

So distracted by its tears was he, that he didn't even notice the wind hopper squeaking.

However, there was no way for him not to notice the horrific scraping sound. Mongo spun around, jaw dropping in horror as he saw the rat's corpse beginning to move. His fur stood on end, before suddenly flattening, making him appear much smaller than he was. He made a funny moaning sound, low in his throat, and froze as it launched at him.

Luckily for him, his Magick reacted. Energy poured down from his paws, and into the ground, causing it to tremble.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

The bunny watched in teary-eyed relief at the ascended one deeming to help save this poor lost gem. They would make things right, they had been among the first. They'd been there for bunny when they had been alone. when the other bunnies rejected it because of its pretty collar. When It's only friends had been its reflection and the voice that whispered salvation.

A tremor began to run through the ground, upsetting the wind hopper's footing and more importantly rattling the piles. No, no, no, no, no! The piles must not broken! As the battle continued in the background the pink-collared creature scramble dover to try their best to stabilize the gems.

The rat's charge was disrupted by the sudden shaking of the ground. Cursed flesh abusing the perfection of the gem! Kill it! Slowly perhaps if that would teach the others not to resist their fate.

The spiky decaying rat slowed down their charge but did not stop, determined to fulfill their task. As they got near they raised a gagged crystalline claw toward the creature of blood, not a killing blow as they might have originally intended but one that was aimed directly for the fossa's face.

@Mongo

Mongo felt relief rush through him, even as his gem stung, beginning to give him a headache. The ground began to shake beneath his paws, and he dug his claws into the dirt to try and regain his balance. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the gems beginning to shake and rattle, threatening to fall apart. The wind hopper he'd taken to be a friend was desperately trying to put the gems back into order.

Unfortunately, despite the spell working, it didn't fully stop the rat. The rat landed a painful blow across his face, and Mongo staggered back, feeling his face begin to bleed. If he hadn't slowed the rat with his spell, it probably would have killed him.

He bristled, baring his teeth, and felt a sharp pain run through his gem as he released a heavy burst of energy into the ground.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

The ground shook once more, but this time with more ferocity than the dead rat's bones could possibly handle. Four small clinks could be heard as a particularly large tremor snapped the crystalline tendrils that held its legs in a standing position gave way, depositing the angry corpse onto the ground. It still gnashed, it still convulsed with fury, and if the fossa got too close it would still attack, but for now at least the rat was immobilized.

Over by the gem piles the bunny was gone, or rather had become completely buried by a landslide of falling rocks. Faint squeaks could be heard as it tried to dig itself out.

@Mongo