Though they had returned to Monoceros to tend to her Fire's new child, and to plant the twin seeds of Louie's brood, they didn't stay rooted there for long. They spent as much time as they needed readjusting to Monoceros as their home - having spent upwards of a cycle camping out in the tunnel connecting to Polaris, Magdalena had to reacquaint herself with the path up to her own den and then to Nemesis'. Granted, Magdalena spent very little time in her den. She lacked many material treasures. Such things were of little use to her. She couldn't admire them, and she had no use for them; if anything, they would only serve as memories, and Magdalena found no benefit in memories. She remained intimate with the moment. She only used the past to learn, but once she'd learned all she could, she was most inclined to discard whatever was still left behind.

They wove down through the ledges of Monoceros, back through the tunnels and into a room Magdalena was unsure of whether or not she'd been before. She couldn't necessarily remember, though it was possible she had - far in the past that she'd long forgotten. Her straw eyes lifted up to the ceiling, unseeing for now, as she wandered alongside the rhino. Hestia would be safe back in Monoceros she was certain, though it wasn't necessarily Magdalena fretting over it as it seemed to be Nemesis. She assured her Fire that they wouldn't be gone for long.

She had to erase the guilt of a savage murder from her paws. She had to wash the blood, invisible as it was, she still felt it, from her coat. She still felt his sickness clinging to her, chasing her, haunting her. Of all the crimes she could have committed, it had to be slaughter. Yet it wasn't so much guilt as it was just a feeling of uncleanliness. A feeling brought on not by an unintended death, but an unanticipated failure. Again she had failed, and again it proved her weak. She hadn't told anybody except for Nemesis. She felt dirty. She felt wrong. But he was nothing to the rest of them. Lost down there in the gorge, wallowing in his own disdain. It seemed the only thing that fed him was his hatred and arrogance. The cave was better off without him. Still, she couldn't help but feel that she had fallen short again.

So they went to Orion to become clean. Her folded ears twitched and she listened carefully, probing the air for the sound of rushing water. There had to be some here, there was water everywhere. But the water in Monoceros was dry and dusty and she found that it had tasted of copper, it smelled of copper, and she feared that as she bathed in it she bathed in blood. She swung her head away from Nemesis and parted her jaw, breathing in, searching for the pull that would anchor itself deep in her gut. All around her she could feel pulsating life in structures she hadn't known before. They were angular and decrepit, they were walls all around her, they were crawling on the uneven ground beneath her, they towered high above, but most of all, they moved in gentle pace at a distance that just escaped her honed ears. "Water nearby." Magdalena whispered. But that was as far as she could go. All she could do now was follow the pull, so she did; her paws dragging across the ground as though she were but a dreamer in the waking world.

@Nemesis @Feverfew @Deadnettle @Hestia ?? ??? Pinging Kay and Sparrow just in case they wanna join ;)

Nemesis was more than willing to accompany Magdalena wherever she wanted to go, and in that moment, it seemed she wanted to be away from the sins that crawled in the gorge. The once rhino could hardly blame her, though she felt little sympathy for the fake creature who had outstayed his welcome. Nemesis wondered if it was comforting at all to have someone by her side so acutely proud of the death of a gembound she had murdered. Perhaps she had been too vocal; too quick to shatter the stone-horn of the mangled horse. Awkwardly, it had just been all too convenient. Nemesis had been waiting for a moment to snuff out the out of place poser.

Abrasively, the thought of a sickly black equine, painted green in near opposite of Erebus' violet, passed through her mind and she knew that she wanted to be out of Monoceros for a quiet moment as well. As long as she was with her princess, nothing could go too wrong. Leaving Hestia was a concern, but the lumbering sweetheart would be safe in her shell, and she wasn't one to stray. Nemesis knew the child had a heart like her own, one that kept her close to their home by instinct. Any worries she had of intruders or worse Magdalena soothed away, promising they would only be gone for a moment.

It wasn't long before they had found their way to Orion. Although it was too cramped, with its tight walls and bowl shaped terrain, it was rather beautiful. The quartz stars sparkled above, casting a bluish light on to Magdalena. Quietly, the trinoceros thought to herself that her princess looked just like the quartz stars above. The last time they had been here, it was on a mission to destroy those ugly snowmen made by the Bonebound. It had been cycles since then, but the intimate memory of her frolicking in the snow with her princess hung in her mind. It was almost too easy to forget the equines and the countless other problems weighing her down, but that's simply how it was when she was around the majestic and beautiful ghost horse.

"There," Nemesis pointed out-- really only to herself as Magdalena was blind and all-- the source of water that somehow the borzoi could sense using her weird magic. "Come on," she encouraged as she charged forward, half expecting the canine to just walk over at her own pace. That was fine; mostly, the big grey knight wanted to make sure there were no jerks around to ruin her little quicky date with Maggs.

Barely a couple seconds after, the trino had pointed out the direction of the water with a simple, lofty There, and then words of encouragement to follow up the stamping of her heavy feet against the dusty earth. Magdalena turned her head again, listening attentively to the sound of Nemesis pinpointing the stream and charging towards it. She followed in due time, minding the ground beneath her paws as she went. Sure enough, the gentle bubbling of the stream had lifted into the air and touched her thoughts with a reminder of her accuracy. She was getting better at navigating. She'd had endless cycles to practice and still it felt like she didn't know how to walk until just recently, but maybe by now Magdalena was pressing on more like an automaton than a frightened blind child. A catatonic stride in metered assuredness of her path.

When she met the trino again, she remained intimately close to her shoulder, pressing her own into the trino's thick hide. The stream bubbled in front of them and she could feel just the slightest shift in temperature to accommodate the cold water gurgling ahead. She listened to it, then inched closer, close enough that her paws tentatively gripped the lip of the stream. In the back of her mind, fear of slipping into its icy grip warred with her desire for cleanliness. Magdalena hesitated for a minute or so, staring emptily across the stream before her thirst and the feeling of filth soothed her into dropping her head. Her nose descended to the rippling surface and her salmon tongue flipped out, touching the water with relief. It was clean.

After drinking a few mouthfuls, Magdalena lifted her head and tilted it in Nemesis' direction. Water had sloshed against her face, dampening her cheeks and bringing the fur on her chin to a wet, dripping point. "Is it safe to bathe?" She asked quietly, unable to determine the depth of the stream herself. Magdalena could take a guess on the speed of the current, but she would wait for her Fire's confirmation first.

@Nemesis

Both Fever and Nettle had been told by Papa that he was going away on a very important mission against the carnivores and he had to leave for a little while. They had to stick together and stay in Orion, and keep on the watch for any treacherous evil backstabbing villains that might show their sly faces around, but since they were strong and brave, they would be okay.

For a while, they stayed near the place they had woken up, their shattered shells still sitting under the building rubble, staying put like obedient children, but soon she had gotten incredibly bored. Waiting was boring! She wanted to explore! Nettle had given her a look, but she laughed it off. What could harm them? They had skin like adamatium, they were invincible! Well, Nettle wasn't' really, with his broken tail and hurt hips, but that was different, that was a whole building!

So she had tagged her brother and toddled away as quickly as she could with her little legs, laughing and looking back to check and see whether or not he was still there. She ran and ran, and when she lost sight of him, he appeared in front of her, having snuck around! He tagged her and grinned, his dark eyes glinting with mischief, and he toddled off as well, hiding in the shadows of the building.

Hours passed like this, with Nettle cutting corners and running through buildings to catch her, and her making her way through her faster speed. He favored his hips, and winced when they hurt, and when she noticed that, she pretended to ditz around like she forgot what they were doing entirely so he could catch up and tag her. The outraged fake reaction she gave for him when she pretended to remember they were playing tag was fun to do.

Eventually they reached a river, and she really liked splashing through it as quickly as they could through the shallow parts, and she turned to her brother with a great big grin, saying, "Turn back now, villain, before I burn you to a cinder!"

As soon as she said it, heat rose in her stomach, and panic and excitement coursed through her. What has happening? She opened her mouth to say something, but instead of words, searing heat escaped in a blast towards her brother.

He saw her suddenly frown and turn her head in confusion as soon as she said it, and he walked forward to ask what was wrong. She opened her mouth and suddenly he was blasted with unbearable heat, and he cried out, having turned his head away in instinctual avoidance of pain, and he dove into the deeper part of the river, submerging the parts of his skin that had begun to hurt and blister in the heat. He didn't mean to put himself completely into the water, but when he was running into shoulder length water, suddenly the floor gave way in a harsh shelf, and his head slipped under with a cut-off gasp. All of this took perhaps four or five steps into the river.

It hurt it hurt it hurt, he thought blindingly as he sank to the bottom of the river. When did it become so deep? He panicked, thrashing his limbs around, suddenly realizing that he couldn't breathe. As he thrashed, he moved through the water, so he kept doing that, moving them interchangeably to move better and move up.

He almost stopped though, and his limbs faltered when he looked up. He could see his sister's head under the water and making bubbling noises at him, but he couldn't hear it. Past her was the beautiful star ceiling fractured and glittering through, and if he had breath still left, it would've stolen it away.

His head broke through to the surface, and sound hit his ears all at once, sounds of his sister crying from the shallow end, and soft speech from a different direction. Gasping for air, he turned in the water, wondering who was around.

@Magdalena
@Nemesis

As Nemesis drew close to the water, she spotted something she had never seen before in her life. Not one, but two baby rhinos, playing in the river stream. At first, the cry of the girl she assumed was directed at her, but then she spotted the other, breaking bellow the current. Her motherly instinct kicked in and she charged into the water, falling to a stop as the child managed to resurface.

She heard Magdalena asking if it was safe, but she could only grumble out a "It's deep, careful," before she stormed through the water's thick, heavy weight to reach the two children, to make sure they were okay. The gem nestled behind her horns glowed a soft, warm heat as she lowered her head towards the boy, making sure he wasn't about to slip under again.

"Are you two okay? You shouldn't play in the river," she cooed to them, her large form breaking the current for the boy so he wouldn't get swept away. She turned her dark, midnight blue gaze towards the girl, trying to make sense of it. Where had these two come from?

Nemesis wanted to cry. She had never seen her own species before, only knew who she was in her heart. To see these two children, to know that there was just a small chance she could actually take them in and raise them along side her own precious child and one day have a proper herd of real, true rhinoceros... The maternal feelings in her chest were making her emotional, but she fought back the tears and smiled at them, hoping they recognized her-- with her mutated crest and oversize tail-- as one of their own. As someone who could be the mother she never had.

@Feverfew @Deadnettle

The splashing of something nearby - upstream, downstream? - had distracted her from her query. Almost instantly, her head turned. It was her folded ears searching for the answer to the chaos, her paws feeling the rumble in the earth below, the disturbance of the stream's current. In that same moment, Nemesis had charged into the water. She felt the spray of the crystal refreshment against her legs and stepped back, alarmed, even more so as Nemesis' attention pulled away from her and towards the ones thrashing in the water. They were Gembounds, they must have been; what other reason would her Fire leave her? And yet, Magdalena couldn't envision a Gembound that Nemesis would have been more loyal to than her. Maybe Diamondfang. Maybe Hestia.

The water swayed with the trino's massive movements. She could hear it babbling against her side, and her gentle voice as she spoke to the Gembounds. They must have been young ones playing in the river. Magdalena remained silent, free of the pull of the water, lingering distantly at the shore behind. She wanted to know what they were. More importantly, she wanted to know who they were. But the dog had spoken nothing so far, patiently waiting and quietly willing her Fire to return to her.

Fever had panicked, shouting and shoving her head under the water right at the end of the shelf, water blinding her and rushing into her open mouth, making her pull back and splutter, crying and panicking, and she saw the bubbles rise to the surface from where her brother fell, and her hysteric screams echoed over the river. She was about to dive under the water to find her brother, rastling with the insane desire to drown with him if it came to that, when he came bubbling up, kicking and thrashing around clumsily, his head dipping in and out of the water. He'd looked around, dazed, and when she followed his gaze, tears and cold river water streaming down her face, she'd seen the two other gembounds on the other side of the river, one of them charging to them both, one that looked almost exactly like the two of them, only bigger.

The older gem crashed through the water with concern, blocking the river with her mass so that Nettle could find purchase on the riverbed, and he coughed up water, looking really shaky on his legs. Fever sniffled and ran to him, butting her head against his neck, her voice a broken mess, "I-I-I t'ought you were de-e-e-ad," She sobbed.

Water dribbled from his mouth after he climbed back onto the shelf, and he turned into his sister's embrace, murmuring soft words of comfort to her. She was really really broken up about him slipping and falling into the river, and his shoulder and part of his face still burned from the new blisters there, but what hurt him the most was that he had made her cry. He was just as upset as she was, inside, even if he didn't show it.

He looked up to the big gem that looked like them, blinking, in awe of her calm ferocity and raw power she held in check. Behind so near the two of them was like being surrounded in heat, and that got him thinking.

Was this...was this new gem their Mama? Did she finally find them? Her concern told him that was true, and in his heart, he knew it was, because she was the same as they were. They'd never met anyone else yet that looked just like them.

"Sorry," He murmured softly to the both of them, his voice weak, and he swallowed, tasting the river water.

"Fever...." He nudged her softly. "Look. Mama."

Fever looked up from her sobs, tears glittering, and pain shot through his heart. She looked up at the older gem, and her demeanor changed from frightened sorrow to awe. "...Mama?...."

Then it clicked for her. "Mama! Mama!" She took a step to butt her head into the bigger gems leg, her voice breaking with left over remnants of tears. "Mama!"

@Nemesis

Tears bit at the corner of her eyes as she stared at the children, stepping out wider as the female calf came rushing over to her brother. She would guard them both, protect them as if they were her own. She resisted the sob that bubbled up from her throat as one of them mumbled the word "mama". It was over now, her heart was locked to theirs, a connection deeper than blood and skin.

"Yes, that's right, Mama's here," the trinoceros cooed as the female calf headbutted her knee. She touched her nose gently to the boy's forehead, and then turned her head and ran her mouth over the girl's ear, warmth spreading not only from her skin but deep in her bones.

"Come now," she told them softly. "Let's get out of this river," she encouraged, holding out her tail, taking careful, slow steps back towards Magdalena. She watched the pair of them, trying to notice the subtleness of them. To any other gembound, they might have looked like the same creature, being twins.

Yet already she was starting to notice the way the boy struggled to hold his head high above the current, and the way the girl's one ear stuck straight up. They were adorable, perfect little mimics of what she used to be. She already knew she would love them forever.

"Princess!" She called to Magdalena as she reached the other side of the river, having guided the children across. "I've found two children... What are your names?" She asked them curtly, meeting their eyes with a gentle smile. "I am Nemesis, but you may call me Mama all you wish... And this is my Princess, Magdalena. She cannot see, so do be careful."

@Feverfew @Deadnettle