Wandering, starting and stopping, living on the move— none of it is really notable. Yvan and his companion- he'd never even learned its name- have passed through tunnels and caves, through heat and gems and each place was more uninhabitable than the last. There's just not as many beings to eat in the maze of gems, as marvelous as they were; the few animals there stared at them in a way that reminded Yvan of how Ryoto had been watching before approaching him.

Well, they can talk to him if they want, but he wants to eat something a little less intelligent.

Gemini didn't see the two of them long because of this; it wasn't worth eating something that was like them. Hopefully the next tunnel over would have something, and the next cave over would have anything, but Yvan truly does miss the forest of Leo. He could find food there, since the food can find food, but here it's... rocks. A big crystal. Light.

Every place is more different than the last. As curious as Yvan is, hunger gnaws at his core, driving him to be impatient. Somewhere in his guts, he knows he's probably pushing Ryoto a bit, but he needs to feed it too..! He's a responsible young man. Unfortunately, finding food for either or them is still going to be hard with how steep the shore is. Peering over the ridge doesn't give him any judge as for how deep it is. He doesn't trust that.

He might have to. Reaching out his senses, stretching out the mental muscles of magic, Yvan can't tell if there's any life near the river. The only target is within, and it does seem deep, which gives him pause. Can he even swim? How does he know what swimming is? Standing at the shore with his hands at his hips, he peers in with his standard disgruntled face and squinting eyes, trying to look past the water.

Turning for Ryoto, wherever it is, Yvan points a claw towards the river. "There's fish." Surely it's hungry too..?

@Ryoto (for tomorrow .)

[oh, i love you!]

Uninhabitable is a bit of a strong word— or, at least, so Ryoto would think. Though, it supposes it isn't thinking in the most keenly practical sense like Yvan (who is, likewise, still nameless in its stream of consciousness) is. So long as there's something to look at, it's rather content; even with hunger pangs beginning to once again gnaw invisibly at its guts.

You see, it's quite easy for it to distract itself from oncoming misery without much mind being paid to its needs. For all its denizens' strange fixation on staring (enough for it to notice), Gemini had been a rather wonderful place to explore. It can't wait to make the (presumed) return trip through it; perhaps pick up another polished mirror of a gemstone like the one it's presently holding.

All that high praise being said, it's Polaris that Ryoto really falls into inescapable fascination with.

Sure, the floors are a bit dull and lifeless, but— Ahh, just look at all of the... glowing things, friend! Don't look so displeased with it! Behold, the new dusting of mushroom spores on most of its fur— ... Yvan hadn't been too happy about that one, promising to brush all of those out later on—

Perking ears are sure to lead to the propagation of yet more fungi in the room, as quickly as they flick upward and to attention. "Fish" is a word that it likes the association of, but... It leans over the sheer edge of the river, squinting hard. "... how see?" The water's surface is too choppy to even betray a shadow of a fish, much less the idea of one! "Mm, doesn't look safe." Ryoto rocks backward before it takes a tumble in, reclining onto its haunches and balancing its newest fidget-stone on its lap.

@Yvan

It's hard for Yvan to miss its tendency to want to hold things. Maybe he'll get it something else to hold eventually, but it needs to be special. For now, he'll worry about being hungry.

And he is! Maybe he's worrying a little more than necessary. But that's his job, so Ryoto doesn't have to feel bad too. It's why he's about ready to brave the water in search of food, even despite it saying the words the tiny voice of self-preservation likes to leave lingering in the back of his mind.

"You just— ... reach out. Like focusing on seeing them." It's his best explanation for magic. "I can get them for you."

The question is, how? Frowning down the side, Yvan paces in place before turning around to ease himself back. His humanoid half bends down to hold the earth, back paws inching closer and closer to the edge before he's slowly lowering them off the side. There's barely any footholds, and it's hard for even a hexapod. One step at a time—

His paw slips once before he's gotten his forelegs down. For an instance, he grabs at the ridge, tenses his face as he focuses on digging in his claws until he's ready to begin his descent. It's not going to work as well if he's clinging on so desperately, and he still has further to go, even if his tail is being pushed by the drift.

"Hey. Go downstream, I'll meet you that way." He points to his left, the way his tail's flowing, while his top half is still flat on the ground. "And, um— get a stick. Or something I can grab onto." Climbing back up is going to be a pain.

He's not going to let go until he's certain he has a way back out. ... or, in the very least, he knows that Ryoto heard him.

@Ryoto

[oh, i love you!]

Explanation of magic and confidence be damned, clearly, that voice of self-preservation is too small. So, Ryoto must compensate by raising its own— forcing it above the rushing current Yvan's beginning to drop himself into— and wincing aloud, "No, no, come on—" The blunted claws of its feet scuff against the floor as it lowers onto all fours, pacing closer. "D-don't need fish."

The water's bitingly cold when it sticks a hand into it in search of a forelimb to pull Yvan up by; cold enough that it yelps and nearly retreats. "A-aah!" Just the mere thought of losing the other to such a frigid depth keeps Ryoto grasping, though.

"... can look for something else," it whines, insistent, when it seems to constantly miss the shimmer of blue-white scales beneath the rippling surface.

@Yvan

Yvan doesn't understand why Ryoto is so worked up. It's just water, isn't it? Water has fish in it, therefore it's worth it to brave it. He just can't feel how deep it is with his tail, but that's fine, surely. "I'll be fine..!" With his attention on the water, he flat out ignores Ryoto's reachings, sliding down fully and hitting the cold water.

Preservation instinct kicks in as he dips below and shoots off the bank with a kick, wings flaring as he surges upstream with arms outstretched. Arms stay stretched out for anything coming his way— the school of purplish fish will do nicely. Another push off the rocks and he barrels right into them.

Limbs flail for a grasp on the group. Claws scrape, and he twists, and they slip through as he jumps up from the surface with the prey flipping this way and that in his arms. It's far too big for one being to grab. He yelps when the cold sting hits his back once more and he bends over backwards, feathers slapping down into the waves he generates.

One wrong slip, and the fish is wriggling away, leaving an angry line across Yvan's face with a spiny pectoral as he grasps onto nothing. Fresh pain flourishes in its wake— pink clouds into the river, and Yvan twists to grab at his face with fresh panic welling in his gut.

He's never felt pain before. Not true pain like this, and it hurts. It floods his mind, leaves him gasping as he grapples for the side of the river, bracing on stone as the rest of his body continues to sweep away. "Fuck!" Blood streams over his eye as he shudders in the air. Forepaws perch as he holds one hand up, the other holding his face. "Shit!" It's getting in his mouth. It doesn't taste good. He's freezing, and he hurts and he wants out of the river now.

@Ryoto

[oh, i love you!]

Ryoto doesn't understand why Yvan is so carelessly stubborn. The current's harsh enough for it to feel like it'll be sucked into the river with even just one arm dipped in; does he not feel it ripping at the entirety of his body? He doesn't even a fur coat to use as an excuse! The whole thing is enough to push it to frustrated tears— and those sting worse than the sputtering of water as it hits rock or the tattoo its jack-rabbiting heartrate is beating into its lungs.

Pacing to trail the swimming form doesn't help. Neither does the misting of pink— wrong, wrong, not right, he shouldn't have— that trails after the dragon's fall from gracelessness. Swearing words are punctuated with distressed whining from Ryoto as it stoops at the edge again (throwing aside its precious holding stone, because wringing its hands around it is no help) and dips both hands into the freezing-cold water.

It nearly falls in during the melee of trying to guide his claws to the river's edge and haul him out, but— he's heavy. Too heavy to pull up all on its own, and there's no one else around and— and— A nagging, anxious noise tears loose of its throat again as it shakes its head. Eyes blink fast, clearing away that blurry coating over them. They screw shut with the bridge of its nose crinkling— it hates it, but—...

Water roars in its ears as it dives in headfirst. The iciness of it sinks in in an instant, but there's hardly time to linger on it; handholds slip further with every second it doesn't spend powering itself upstream and attempting to press itself underneath Yvan's lower half, urging him to shove up with it like some sort of... stepping-stone. As long as he's out, it can haul itself back out— right? It's lacking the heft that he has, and it matters more that he's okay.

It needs him to be okay, and it shows in the single, forceful upward shove it inflicts upon his stomach before being swept a few feet downriver and fighting an endless, perhaps unwinnable battle against the relentless flow.

@Yvan

He understands why Ryoto was so worried now. Frantic, he grapples for its arm when it reaches down, tries and tries to haul himself up but only drags a bloodied hand on the slick rock.

It's coming in with him.

"Stay out of the water! I can make it!" He can't. He can't admit that he can't either, and he hates that Ryoto is helping. Wasn't it just worried about the water too? What can it do, even as it dips underneath him and shoves up? Claws scrabble for the edge as his form is barely hefted, rocks breaking away from the shore as he digs into the ground above. All of his energy is thrown into heaving himself up.

His chest hits the ground, and he allows himself only a split second to heave for air before he's turning back for Ryoto. He can't see it, it's— "No!" Throwing himself back towards the shore, Yvan bounds down the current and watches Ryoto through one eye, panic thrumming through his core. It shouldn't have gone in for him! He could have made it! Sliding to a halt further down the river, Yvan clutches his forepaws on the edge of the shore and reaches out with his torso dangling as far as he can.

"Paddle this way! C'mon, grab on!" He's not losing Ryoto to a dumb idea he came up with. "Please! I'll grab you!"

@Ryoto

[oh, i love you!]

Panic is the first step in drowning. Despite all willing to forestall its rising, Ryoto knows that it's falling into it. Its rhythmic strokes are faltering, growing more and more erratic and desperate; reaching further and swinging wider instead of focusing on power. Just getting to Yvan or the shore clouds every reasonable plan that might be forming in its mind— even those that would achieve either goal: dipping beneath the waves; going with the current and letting itself be taken however far it needs to be; simply slowing down in its frantic pace—...

It surges upward, gasping for a new breath of air to hold before slipping back into war. Every muscle burns with the strain of fighting, but it has to make it out. It has to.

Yvan needs to get out, too. Ryoto surges upward again, mouth open to speak and cry out that very sentence, but its voice dies in its throat and riverwater instead fills its mouth. It gags at the taste, sputtering out its valuable breath and gasping for another.

@Yvan

It's only getting worse, and Yvan's breath catches in his throat like a stone. What can he do other than watch helplessly as it drifts past, adrift and struggling. He's going to lose it. He can't lose it. No—! Every sputtering breath rises pure, pure panic in Yvan's core, drives him to cry out and reach futilely.

Ryoto's too far away. Grimacing with a wide eye, Yvan draws back and digs his hands into the edge of the shore, teeth baring down enough that it feels like they may crack. "Swim!" He doesn't even bother to lift his top half all the way as he scrabbles further down the river. "Get to the shore! I can drag you out, come on!" What can he do, truly?

He's helpless. It's more terrifying than the blood on his face. The least he can do is reach out again, reach harder, try to be any sort of anchor for Ryoto to grab onto; if it'll even make it to him this time.

@Ryoto

[oh, i love you!]

"Swim!" Get out! "I can drag you out, come on!" Get out! It still can't find the voice to plea with him; not for lack of air, but for terror as Yvan chances losing what hold he's managed just to come after it and try to help it instead of himself. Ryoto shakes its head with a bleating cry, a palm smacking against the water as it tries and fails to gesture for solid ground. A few compensating, paddling strokes lead it nowhere, even as it angles a little more properly for the edge and slips short of it with yet another gasp.

@Yvan