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Tal'at had escaped the cursed kitten and her awful, terrible luck. He had escaped the screaming voices that protected the hollow gem... But he still didn't have any feathers. He wanted to get some, to help make his own nest, but it was looking more and more like he would have to rely entirely on Eve's skills to get his home put together. He still didn't have a place to put the nest, but he was thinking in the same tree as Eve-- so long as that demonic whatever it was didn't mind his presence.

For now, the bat was flying blind, through the trees, his magic failing him in his panic. He had managed to avoid the branches so far, and was confident he was going to escape any monsters tailing him--

WHACK.

Out of no where, something (mostly likely a tree branch) reached out and snatched him from the sky, tossing him down a bunch of branches. It wasn't the first time, of course, but he hated it every time it happened. The only thing worse was running face first into a tree trunk-- his gem and skull was lucky to have survived childhood.

Splash. The fruit bat plummeted, not for the first time that day, into a wetter part of the bog-- but it was a bit deeper than he expected. He tried to flail to the surface, but by the time he managed it, he had attracted the attention of a very curious set of eyes.

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going out a different path lead by a beating heart

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Thankfully, the thing that was in the water with him did not eat bats. In fact, she preferred fish. Perfectly packaged meat in scales-- fur just did not suit her. She did, however, want to be alone, and so she made a great fussing hiss as his wing clipped her in the face.

Surfacing, the bat found he was face to face with none other than a Water Walker-- a type of blue-green spider that lived in the murky, reedy waters of Cetus. He knew nothing about her-- and instantly assumed she might have been a greater gembound, rather than a lesser.

"Ack pardon me-- I didn't mean-- The tree branches--" Tal'at panicked, flailing up on to her torso, doing his best not to drown-- he had no idea where land was, and frankly was just hoping she was a friend, perhaps a Child of Rot.

She was not.

She plunged back down, having gills, and tried to shake him off.
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going out a different path lead by a beating heart

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Tal'at did not have gills and did not want to drown, but even his clicks were so muffled and unintelligible under the water that it made the whole situation incredibly difficult. The spider thrashed about-- while she lived in the water, her body was not made for swimming, only for lurking and striking-- or walking upon the water.

To his credit, the bat held on quite tightly. He reached out with his sense, trying to understand her, trying to figure out why she was trying to drown them both. She clearly wasn't a fish-- he knew, distantly, what fish felt like. Something like Noodle Dad-- and she was almost fuzzy.

His magic reached out, and he felt immediately felt his own stone-- life, animalistic, fauna. He knew it. Reaching through the water to her was a bit more difficult, the water was thick, and it was difficult to understand the feeling he got through it... But... Even though he couldn't understand what the sensation was, his magic did. It was something it could connect to, something it could pour itself into.

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going out a different path lead by a beating heart

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So, while Tal'at tried not to drown and the spider tried to wiggle free, his magic went to work. Trying to reach out to the creature, like he wanted, to instruct her with what he needed. Help. He didn't want to die, he didn't want to drown, and he didn't understand why she couldn't just take him back up to the surface.

He reached out. His magic brushed hers. And immediately, his mind swarmed hers. Don't drown me! Don't kill me! I can't drown! Save me please! He didn't even know that the connection had formed at first, as his thoughts raced, begging to be saved, his lungs starting to ache. The poor spider. The poor, poor spider. She couldn't drown, but suddenly she was filled with the sensations that the bat had.

SCREEEEEEE, the screeching filled his mind, the panicked noise of a water walker that just wanted to be left alone. The hissing was like static in his head-- but suddenly his body and hers lurched from the water, and he could finally gasp for air. NNNNNNNnnnsssssssss, the spider conveyed the thought, the emotion, the want to be away-- to be let go of. All she wanted was to scurry away, back to her underwater den.

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going out a different path lead by a beating heart

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Tal'at didn't want to bother the poor spider-- but he was overwhelmed by all of the new senses, new feelings, the noise. He felt a bit sick, frankly, on top of this hissing, screeching spider, but for a long moment they just sort of floated on the surface. She was waiting for him to let go, knowing she couldn't just drown him off. Somehow, that didn't soothe his worries.

... How are you... What happened here? I can hear... Share thoughts with... His memories floated to the idea of Dark, the fluffy owlet who had showed him a vision of his small batty body enjoying an incredibly tasty fish--... Fish? Tal'at was going crazy. He had to get away from this spider and her strange thoughts-- visions of water, fishes dying, blood flooding the murky depths-- Yeah, he needed to get away, and now.

Tal'at spread his leathery wings, shaking off what water he could, and stumbled off of the spider and into the air. The spider made another horrible noise and disappeared under the water-- he could feel the wetness slurp up over her body.

The bat flew headfirst into a tree.

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going out a different path lead by a beating heart

And then suddenly Eve was there, in a branch, staring down at the blind bat.

"...are you okay?" she croaked down at the bat and his spider pet, fluttering down to the tree roots.

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He was almost getting used to the jarring sensation of knocking his skull around via orbface to tree. The bat plopped down on to a root and was never happier to have solid ground--

...are you okay?

Eve's voice hit his ears and he found himself straining to locate her. "I am not." Meanwhile, green-blue spider watched with eight mango-colored eyes from the water. "It is wet. The spider sees. My face hurts. I nearly drowned. The spider thinks. I hear her."

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[/quote]

The crow's head slowly tilted and she turned to peer at the spider. "Uhh.. hi? What's your name?" she asked the spider.

No reply.

In fact it tried to hide.

Eve looked back at Tal'at, blinking twice. "I don't.. understand," she croaked. "Did you learn a thing? I know there's an owl who can put things in people's heads, can she do that?"

She hobbled closer and nuzzled the bat's orbface with a sigh.

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Tal'at was flooded with the sensation that a bird was trying to eat him. He tried to ignore it, but it did put him a bit on edge. The spider was somehow more paranoid than he was.

"You mean Dark. He is nice. I wish that... He was here... He would know," Tal'at replied to Eve, feeling frankly quite exhausted at the moment. He had run around everywhere today and nearly died at least twice. Not the best record.

Still, he tried to encourage the spider about Eve. She was nice. She was a friend. Safe. Protective. Had a warm, safe nest to sleep in. The spider had no cares about a nest, preferring to hide in the depths of the bog (a fragment of a sensation that made Tal'at all the more uncomfortable) but she did slowly become less afraid of the crow and the bat. They hadn't moved to attack her and the bat was calming down so, so too would she.

The fuzzy water walker inched a bit closer, peering at them. "I don't know... What I did... I nearly drowned, then I could... Could hear her. Begged to save, and she did," he told Eve, shivering a bit as he inched closer to her nice warm body of feathers.

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"That's good," the crow chirped.

Then she was silent for a moment, peering blankly at the water walker with a tilted head. Then she pulled away from Tal'at and hesitantly bounced forward towards her, carefully going to nudge one of her legs with her beak.

It was entirely possible she was trying to fuck with the spider-bro.