Sergei backed up quickly at the flow of red, his massive brow drawing downward in consternation. He didn't know what all of this meant, or what-

-Effluvium jumped in, wholly interrupting the brown bear's train of thought.

"Wh-WHUH?" he blurted, dark eyes widening. He stumbled further back at the splash, watching the meat-pile swiftly dragged away by the swift current; there he grumbled. "I think this waterrr goes to ice-cave," he said, immediately worried. But... Pisces held Mother. Or it had, once. He didn't like visiting it too often and he didn't... actually care about the insane meat-chunk's safety all that much.

Still... What if it drowned?

He hesitated, grumbling. "It might drrown," he clarified, clawed fist tightening around the haft of his clumsy spear.

The Barbearian turned with reluctance, trudging off at a relatively hurried (for a bear) pace for Pisces. He knew which way the waters flowed--he didn't know of these other caves, yet, or he might have been less certain about where Effluvium would have ended up.

Still, he didn't wait for confirmation from the others: he merely departed, intending to double-check that idiot meatbag didn't arrive dead at the farther end.

exit Sergei

Things very quickly took a crazy turn, to Kaimana's surprise. Everything seemed fine, and the expedition seemed like it was about to continue, when all of a sudden the waters became... gratuitously gory. Kaimana took a step back in confusion and disgust. The nugget, however, went diving right in before the waters went bonkers! The cub didn't have the grit nor the reflexes to save them. It seemed as though nobody did. The nugget was swept away!

Fear ran all throughout the jaguar. She didn't know what to do now. She hadn't expected it-- the gore wasn't the least troubling, the origin of it was. And what had happened to the nugget?!! Kaimana couldn't help but back away. And before she knew it, she was taking off, somewhere else. Was she grossed out by the blood, or shocked by the suddenness, or worried about the nugget, or...? All of it. All of it. And it generated fear. And complete misunderstanding. Maybe if it hadn't all happened so quickly, she would've been okay. Maybe if she were older and her nerves were bothered less easily. In the end, Kaimana just didn't want to be there anymore. There was nothing she could do.

- exit -

Haven got the Hell away from the water, backing away and bumping into someone, quickly apologizing. She put her claws over her mouth and wanted to puke, the smell of so much blood making her nostrils burn, despite her diet of fish and fruit.

She hacked and grabbed at Electrum, "Come on- we have to go before I hack up lunch..."

She shuddered and watched the weird hunk of meat float off. At least someone was having fun...

She turned and took flight, looking green around the gills (literally), not even waiting for Electrum to follow her as she fled.

@Electrum
Exit Haven.

Thank goodness for the many friends here. A helping claw had her hauled up and onto the bank, and all was well again. Didn't mean she didn't graciously take Sergei's offered spear in her jaws. Glaive shook her head in mild confusion at what the fish were afraid of, because she hadn't seen anything but them. All they'd been doing was swimming in one direction and being in a panic.

Kaimana was on the case, anyways! Her expert planning would pay off, since everybody was completely down for it. If Haven came back and needed help back up, Glaive would happily offer her assistance, too. She just stared down in complete confusion at Effluvium's eager jaws, trying to be polite by not gagging then and there at the nugget's putrid smell. No need to be rude about that. It didn't look like it could help it.

Besides, it was long-gone down the fresh new river of blood. Dull as her sense of smell was at times, this was worse than that meat-creature's odorous aura. The stink of stagnant water was bad enough, but inundated in blood and gore—I've never seen so much... dead.—it was enough to trigger the rest of that gag reflux Effluvium had.

If this river went to Fornax or anywhere else... Orarian-Ocean! Glaive's eyes widened, and she shambled after Kaimana's retreating form. Orarian was back at their home. Was the Ocean doing that... ? Why? Who'd hurt it?

exit Glaive