The more it spoke, the more it, too, realized how contradictory the goals of the rot-children seemed. Phlegethon had not particularly depended on the forces driving the core idea of these Gembound (survival, of course) and more on the simple acts Lamia had described: eating food and sleeping. Those were, really, the only two things the monstrosity had ever done. Socializing was a luxury outside of survival.

It is danger faced now, rather than later, unprepared, it tried to justify, voice wavering and near-warbling. I have not lived, as you have described, --- a sad realization, if you weren't Phlegethon --- but, I have survived. If knowledge comes, I will take it. I enjoy talking to the Greater of the Gembound but would find contentment elsewhere if I cannot.
@Lamia

Lamia shrugged, a little offput by Phlegethon's apathy. Every moment she was alive, every moment that she aged, she felt more and more the need to go, not stay in one place. It wasn't an instinct, no, deep inside all she wanted to do was find a nice underwater cave to haunt and eat lots of fish. But the spirit of intelligence and perhaps what Tenzin had passed to her, it had awakened a need to see things and experience things.

That is sad...you should try things, then. Do a risk. Life is boring without danger. Surviving is boring. It sounded childish and immature, but, to be fair, Lamia was barely an adolescent. Have you ever tried to go on land?

@Phlegethon

Phlegethon's head tilted further, nearly upside-down at this point --- a singular movement to portray how confused and uncertain it was, now. To try things would be to risk survival, but to survive was to seek knowledge. It would have to bring risk into the equation in order to obtain knowledge. As a newly-emerged eldritch being, the monstrosity did not once think about the risks involved in some of the things that it did; not even when they entailed grand theft food or slithering on land to chase after a hare.

Perhaps, as it aged, it had settled into too much routine. Cycles spent milling about the swamp, thinking about nothing, really. As growth slowed, Phlegethon found itself needing to eat and hunt less.

I went on land in the past, it began, but warbled softly, my body holds too much within it. I cannot move or survive above the water. There were plenty of poor experiences had with land-dwelling. There is no way out of this swamp.

Oh, how wrong it was. It had never even looked.
@Lamia

Lamia glanced the length of Phlegethon's body and understood a moment later why it was that he could not go on land. On land, water flattened and spread out. If it was mostly made up of water, it would do the same and probably lost its body. She felt a twinge of pity for the monstrosity but then remembered how much nice it was beneath the water and it disappeared. But then returned when she remembered that there were many caves that were not connected.

But finally, Phlegethon said something that it had no answer to and Lamia, in fact, did. Her lips twisted into a sharp-toothed smile and the fin on her tail expanded. There is, though! How do you think I got here from Pisces? There are tunnels beneath the water, only a few that connect to other caves, but it at least leads out of Cetus, if you so desire to explore other places. She turned and gestured in the direction that she had come from. It took time to get here from Pisces, but there is a way. The water apparently leads to Fornax and Polaris as well. You could go to any of them without even touching land.

@Phlegethon

Teeth flashed in the dark, eliciting a slight rumble and head-tilt from Phlegethon; at this point, its head had essentially spun a full 360 degrees. As if to suddenly realize that, the monstrosity wound its neck, placing its head in proper position. Such a thing was likely alarming to a boned creature, it realized. Smart.

Pisces is not a place, here? What a silly thought to have, but it was truly in a bit of confusion. Phlegethon had never wandered past the swamp nor the room of mists. Gembound came and went, yes, but such a water-bound creature as itself and Lamia... they could not travel above water. Its red eye flashed in the dim waters, glancing off in the direction its companion had indicated towards. Through there, you say?

Now was as good as any time to explore.

The eldritch being moved slightly, silently, stirring quite a ruckus in the water. Show me, Lamia, it called, despite already descending towards the mentioned spot.
@Lamia

Lamia let out a small chiming laugh. No! Pisces is another cave. It is not a swamp. It is big and clear and cold and there are waterfalls. It is very pretty. She wasn't really sure what was going on with his head...it was very confusing to look at, considering that it was all just Black and not much else. She peered closely but before she could make sense it was already moving.

She tumbled away from the current that Phlegethon picked up, but she fought against it this time, swimming strongly enough that she was able to keep up and even pull ahead of him. It is over here and down. The tunnel is long and gets cold.
She led Phlegethon down towards the underwater tunnel that would lead him to Pisces, excited to show him the place where she had hatched.

*exit

@Phlegethon

Cold? It is colder than air? Phlegethon didn't really get the concept of how water could be cold, recognizing that air felt cooler than water due to the wind. It could, at least, glean what a waterfall was; didn't mean it understood how one could function. Would the water not end, at some point?

Oh, well.

It trailed after Lamia, all the way to Pisces. There was a little bit of a mishap on the way, as it crammed its entire seemingly-amorphous self into the tunnel, slinking through with relative ease. Imagine if this were an eldritch slime snake shedding its skin, pushing and relieving itself. That was Phlegethon.
;exit