First, Ghanyarah tilted his head to listen as Eve regarded his suggestion. Fish would die out of water, and he briefly wondered if he was skilled enough to use his magic to create a bubble of water in which they could transport the fish. Theoretically, it was possible, but Ghanyarah didn't know if he would be able to sustain it. He listened further to her suggestions, which Aithaxas seemed to agree with. He recalled the discovery of Fornax being located behind a wall, but another room within the Eyes? It would have to be beneath them. He wasn't sure he'd want to enter a room so violently guarded, however. Unless that room led to some form of truth or escape, he didn't think it would be worth the trouble.

Two strangers were next to arrive: a bird, which seemed familiar with Dragon, and a cougar. Ghanyarah elevated himself slightly, his head raised and alert as he observed the exchanges, but mostly, he was interested in what Dragon had decided for their next course of action. It would risk all of their safety to rouse the Eyes by putting something inside their waters, yes, but perhaps that was a risk worth taking if only to learn more about the Eyes and their seemingly insidious intentions.

He watched the other bird, Hera, fly off, and continued to listen.

He had only noticed the lion approaching the water when Aithaxas pointed it out. Ghanyarah's tongue flicked cautiously as he moved to step forward, only to fix his eyes on Dragon, waiting for the alligator's response. If needed, he was more than ready to run to the lion's rescue - even with Eve still on his head.

@Eve

Still nestled comfortably on Ghanyarah's face, the crow watched Dragon for a moment. Vegetation-- plants? "It might not react to stuff that grow around it," Eve squawked with no care for the reptile's hearing. "Y'know-- because they see that sorta stuff all the time? We could try getting plants from Polaris or Cetus-- or maybe things from the other side. Uhhh..."

The crow stared off at the pools of water for a while, thinking. Plants weren't something Eve often paid attention to, and rarely acknowledged. She racked her mind for the sort of things that could be found in the caves.

There were fruits and vegetables and mushrooms, like the ones that Giggle would grow. With a painful groan, the bird pushed herself off Ghanyarah's head and unfurled inky-black wings. "Hold on," she announced, as she fluttered off into Eridanus.

She moved like a small, black shadow, vanishing into the foliage and searching the area. She first found some lichen, yanking the stems away from tree bark and carrying it back over to the others, where she dropped it unceremoniously in the middle of the group, before flapping off again with a sharp, instinctive cry.

Next, she located some mushrooms. She grabbed a smaller one in her beak, unable to carry anything with her talons, and hauled that back to drop it with the lichen. She spent a time looking for more plants, for more things that were some distance from the Eyes, and brought them back.

Ferns, leaves, flowers of all sorts of colours, moss, mushrooms and unidentifable fruits were dropped one by one with the others, until a very small pile had formed. After the crow dropped the final mushroom onto the pile, she moved to land onto the closest's reptile's head-- which just happened to be Dragon.

She half-crashed into his neck with a croaking groan, letting out loud, whistling pants as she tried to catch her breath and crawl up onto the crown of the alligator's head, taking a moment before speaking. "There's uh... all kinds of... fuckin'... things," she wheezed, closing her eyes.

"They should be... all out of range for the Eyes to see... assuming they... see like we do," the crow continued, though she was nothing much more than a lump of rising and falling feathers on Dragon's head. "You can, uh.. toss 'em in... see what happens... try tossing one into each eye or.. whatever."

It took a long moment before the bird slowly crawled back up onto her legs and sat herself back down, staring wearily in front of her and tucking her wings onto her back with a final, long heave. "Is there anything else around that I should have picked up?"

The surface of the water lay still, undisturbed even by the approaching presence of the large feline. Its reflections shimmered and froze in time, as though the image pressed into the water had been imprinted on glass. The pools seem to sense the use of magic on their waters.

A memory flashes in Faelan's mind: splashing water. A discordant flurry of water surrounds him, and he feels not what one might expect to feel - the lash of cold moisture - but a thundering in his chest, a panicked heartbeat. A scream rings in his ears. He feels long, curved claws grasping at stone, as though resisting against the pull of some stronger creature. The boiling of fury fills him - fury and betrayal. Then, as quickly as the memory comes, it is consumed in a flash of darkness.

Faelan is left with the inexplicable, dysphoric sensation of wrath for the nearby Gembounds coursing through his veins. He must roll OTHER to dispel the sensation. If the roll fails, Faelan is consumed by blinding wrath and must attempt to physically attack nearby Gembounds for 3 posts.

@Faelan

The voices of the those gathered behind him could be heard, but Faelan wasn't listening to them. His gilded gaze was focused on the still, dark waters of the pools. They were unnaturally still, unmoved by either air or movement from within. No water ran to them, so they must be fed from somewhere inside, and yet there was no evidence of any current whatsoever.

Darkness edged in on the lion's vision, until a wave of water droplets flying through the air could be seen. Water surged up, around something that was splashing in the dark waters. The churning waves sucked him -them?- under, but he felt no moisture, no cold. Only the thudding of his heart pounding against his chest.
A scream ripped through his ears, even though he was supposed to be underwater. He felt his -their?- claws digging into the stone, holding him -them?- up from whatever wanted to drag them under. It was strong, it might win.

But he was angry.

Fury the likes of which he had never experienced before blasted through Faelan. It consumed him, for a moment. Blood-boiling, blinding rage, the byproduct and companion of betrayal, made him begin to quiver. Then darkness fell, as sudden as it had before, and the feelings that were not his own began to dissipate.

They did not let go easily though. Faelan was left violently shaking, both from fury and fear. He knew that the emotions were not his, and yet, they felt so real it was hard to tell the difference.
Something, or rather, someone, had apparently been dragged into the Eyes. They had been afraid, of course, but their anger....the sting of betrayal...that was unexpected. The lion tried to focus on the visions, but the ache in his chest made it difficult. He hadn't been betrayed, he thought, but his heart was having a hard time believing it.

Dragon was in the middle of opening his mouth to respond--to thank Eve for her ideas, and Hera for her attempts, and to ponder aloud their ideas--when Faelan slipped into view.

Dragon knew him--had met him. He had spoken to him about the secrets of the caves, the Children--the Eyes themselves. He had warned him of their dangers, but apparently to no avail. Dragon's voice escaped in a guttural hiss.

"Ssstay," he rumbled, his entire bulk tensing as he stared.

What is he thinking?! I warned him of the waters! I warned him of what they do...

"That lion. I know him. I told him of the waters." Faelan seemed unaffected--trembling slightly, but as Dragon watched, he seemed to tremble just that little bit. Dragon fretted for just a moment, considering, and then looked sharply to Hera. "Can you go to him? Call to him, from the other side. Lead him away... then back around. Not straight to us." Overly paranoid, perhaps, but Dragon did not wish to put his entire family here at risk.

@Hera @Aithaxas @Eve
@Ghanyarah

Hera wanted to help Dragon.

He'd cared for her, and carried her around. And she fished all the time, so why not do it for him?

Perhaps it was that eagerness that messed with her, that made her falter. She spread her wings wide, catching a glimpse of fish slipping through the water.

The Golden Eagle dove from the branch, spreading her wings wide, and diving towards the river. Carefully, she extended her talons, preparing to grab the fish. And then -

PAIN!

The bird shrieked, choking as water filled her back. She tumbled into the water, being dunked beneath it, and there was a horrible pain in her left leg. It was only by frantically flapping her wings that she managed to get clear of the water, and she hopped away from the stream, left leg not weightbearing.

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

@Dragon

There were many Gembounds in Eridanus.

Far more than usual. Sure, Gembounds came and went in Eridanus, that's how things went. Usually he would trail them for a time, make sure they meant no harm to the forest, and then leave them to do as they wished. Sure, he'd keep an ear out, but other than that they were free to do what they wanted.

However, so many strange Gembounds set off his 'something is wrong' instinct. So he trailed Rift, sticking to the trees, using the dark of his pelt to blend into the shadows. His red eyes gleamed down from the branches as he observed them, several reptiles, a bird, some canines, a familiar lion, and Rift, all gathered around the Eyes.

The largest reptile addressed Rift, and Sebastian leaped down, padding forward to stand beside his brother. "We live here, yes. I cannot claim to have seen anything strange in them, I'm afraid."

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

Rift narrowed his eyes at the alligator. He wasn't sure he completely trusted them, just by the name. 'The Children of Rot.' That sounded like it could be dangerous to the forest, but he had to remind himself that they didn't really seem to be doing anything wrong. They wanted to discover. And the eyes always held mystery, even to Rift who had lived by them almost his entire life.

"Okay, I guess that's fine" he said slowly. "But if its not too much trouble, I'd like to stick around. I, too, would like to divine the secrets of the eyes but I have no powers of foresight myself. However, if you have need for the magic of the forest, I can provide. I am Rift, by the way, the Guardian of Eridanus."

He looked over as Sebastian landed lightly beside him. "Yes, we have come here many times, but rarely do things of interest happen and never concerning the pools themselves."

@Dragon
(sorry for the wait!)

In order to banish the feeling of betrayal that had rooted inside of him, Faelan thought of Mercurius.

Despite their short time together, he was certain that the other lion would not betray him. Mercurius was a healer, and he strived to help those in need. He wasn't selfish enough to ever do something to harm, or betray, anyone, Faelan thought.
The memory of Mercurius healing him pushed the last vestiges of fear and doubt from Faelan's mind. The one Gembound that mattered the most to him wouldn't betray him, he could be certain of that at least.

Faelan wasn't sure if he could say the same for his potential new allies. In fact, he had momentarily forgotten about the ragtag group of Gembounds until one of them screeched in pain. The lion's massive crown snapped up and around in alarm just before the sound was suddenly cut off.
He watched with wide eyes as an eagle came limping up to the group a couple moments later.

Whenever the group continued to speak among themselves, and pay him no mind, Faelan turned to look at the Eyes again.

He wasn't certain if it his spell that had gone awry or if the Eyes themselves had done something to his magicka. Faelan had probed into the memories of the stone before, but he had never seen or felt anything to such an extent. He wondered, fleetingly, if this was another example of his growing power and capabilities. He pushed the possibility to the back of his mind though, and instead focused on the feel of the cool stone beneath his pads.

His magic had always come from the stone before, and so he trusted it to do so again. Whatever had happened before, Faelan decided to think about it later. Whether it was an anomaly, or something more, didn't matter. All that mattered was the rush of magic that flared through him now. It was faint, but he felt it as surely as he felt the cavern floor beneath him.

Faelan felt like there were answers here too. He wasn't certain if they were the ones he sought for himself, but he was confident that there was something important here.
He wanted to help other Gembounds like Mercurius did, but he wasn't a healer. He was...a seeker, perhaps.
He had always searched for knowledge, and for answers, about one thing or another. In doing so, he had found himself in more than one strange, and dangerous, situation. This was just another one. He realized that he could either do something about it by trying to help, or he could stand by and wait and wonder.

Since the group behind him wasn't doing anything, Faelan decided that he would. He had told Dragon that he could find answers in the stone. Now was his chance to help by actually doing so.