He'd circle back around to his birth room one day, but hunger led him to do what had easily become his favorite activity: explore. He burst out of Monoceros as he had burst out of his chrysalis, suddenly and with a look of bewilderment on his face. It was the lack of wind he took in first, his first time standing in still air. It was eerie, unsettling for a child so used to the constant movement. Not enough to move him backwards. He bounced out further into the tunnel, head turning at angles which couldn't be comfortable as he took in the view. At both ends of the tunnel, monsters towered over him. In fact, they surrounded him. Stuck in the stone like his friends. Maybe this was the associate that made him less afraid of the images than he was of the lack of wind.

His body would not let him forget, prone as he was to do so, that he was there on a mission. Hunger. Another new sensation. So many of those. He knew how to find food as well as he knew to do anything. It was unlikely he could tell what was food from what wasn't. If only he had any option but to try regardless. So the hunt would begin, his neck twisting back to a normal position to look straight ahead for any signs of...

What was he supposed to be looking for?

Coming from the other side of the tunnel, Wolf-Rayet yips to itself as it lopes through the tunnel. Still young itself, it shares Joyful's curiosity, unaware of what awaits them.

It rounds a corner, faced with the young cheetah. Not the first living thing its seen, but still very different from the rats and bats fluttering around Orion. "Hello?" Rayet tries, tilting its head. Is this one friendly?

image credit: oskenund

@Joyful