Having lived for a number of cycles within Pegasus, and then having visited the "land beyond the wall" as Jampa would come to think of it (Noctua, the bizarre open place), the girl began to wonder, and as she pondered over the many things she had seen and she had also missed, she wandered. Wondering, wandering - through tunnels that gave her immense comfort, even if they weren't all that familiar - through to the next room; there in Cepheus she saw the palace, and was reminded of the cathedral of Noctua. She remembered the wolf boy and the statue, and the face hidden in the statue which her magic had shown her. With that came an uneasiness, a dread, a chill - and that cold followed her through Ursa and in to Polaris, over the many days she traveled.

From the heart of the cave system Jampa went east. She didn't know what pulled her through the tunnels - although she was briefly tempted to head south and to Eridanus, not knowing the name of that place because she had not knowingly ever been there before - and the main thing on her mind by then was, 'Why did I go to Pegasus?' Indeed, there was nothing there for her. Nothing familiar. Yet sometime during her fugue state she had gone there and she had stayed. Would she have awakened to herself sooner if it had been Ursa, with its cold? Polaris, with its sparks of unstable magic? What had become of Orion - what she considered home even as she roamed - ?

The path to Cetus came upon her soon enough, as she continued along Tunnel H; but it was not what called to her. No, there was something about the crisp scent of water, and the raucous, distant sound of the waterfall, which drew her finally in to Pisces.

As Jampa meandered around the ponds, she saw glimpses of herself. The long pale legs; the thin haunches with bits of feathering; the tops of her wings, folded neatly like a cloak against her back; a crown locked in place by blue stone; and as she left these behind she wondered about these pieces of herself. Of the winged creature back in Pegasus who she had felt a brief kinship with for the amalgam of parts that they shared - and the leg of the caveborn cervid they had offered her, some sort of gesture of kindness, but Jampa had only seen her other parts, butchered there upon the ground.

What was she? Aside from gembound; aside from creature. What was her purpose? Why did any of these creatures exist and persist within these caves? She thought of the fish in the river, her new friend, and how limited that life would be because of where they were born. Were the creatures here not also limited? She thought of the frighteningly wide expanse of sky she had witnessed in Noctua, then, and felt the pit of her stomach drop.

It was with a great breath of relief that Jampa came upon the waterfall, finally.

The drone of the water as it coursed its eternal path gave Jampa a sense of white-noise, helping her to put aside these many buzzing thoughts, these fears, these confusions. It wasn't all gone, but it was quieted by the roaring sounds and the cool touch of water as it foamed and sprayed through the air; poised there at the edge of the massive pool, she looked out for her reflection and saw only the busy white foam, too chaotic to reflect anything.

tenzin

npc

Awoken, summoned by a familiar brush at the edges of his sleeping mind-... Tenzin rose, icy water streaming from his feathers. He came up blinking, looking around, and--aah. There.

"Hello, child... Little Jampa. Although--not so little, now?" he called, pulling himself to the water's edge with a sweep of frosted wings. He wondered what she might be doing here; was everything all right? Or was this a pleasant visit? He fretted a little at the possibility of the former. He wanted only... peace, for her, as impossible as that might be. As impossible as it always was. But it didn't stop him hoping.

@Jampa