the golems had made quick work of the lump in the river, chipping apart the topaz chrysalis without a care to the creature inside. when she woke, her first sights were of faceless stones - not alive, but moving. without a will and yet, filled with purpose. it had been mortifying; the first thing she had felt was fear. an intense fear.

and now, she was downriver, retching. her heart was pounding in her little body and her stomach, letting loose now that there was a spare moment, heaved foam and bile from her pointed muzzle. her legs were shaking until they gave out, and the coyote pup face-planted in to the rocky soil with a squeak. right in to a puddle of her own sick.

The sounds that came to hear ears were strange and... unsettling, however faint and distant. They were enough to cause Lux to stop in her tracks, turning her trail cautiously towards the journey she'd been making back towards the spire. Instead, her legs carried her now towards the river, and as she arrived she saw the scene that had probably been what brought here here. The gembound was small, tugging at memories of when Lux had first emerged from her own shattered crystal. She'd been lucky to have made it on her own, but this one didn't seem so lucky. Upon Lux's first impression, she was pretty sure that the young coyote was dead, but still she approached with caution. Pity tugged at her chest. Never had she thought of herself as really... caring, or motherly, but she still felt a sadness for the gembound. She reached her head down, intending to gently push the baby out of the puddle of filth at least. But as her nose just barely touched the child, Lux realized quickly that she could hear the faint hitch of breathing. Her heart fluttered, and she moved to try and nudge the gembound more roughly than first intended. "Hey, Kid." Her voice was firm, attempting to rouse the child, hoping maybe it wasn't too late for 'em.

He would admit, he had spent the remainder of his time in Polaris looking for something adequate to give to White. The little shard of crystal that she had bequeathed to him was nestled in a cozy somewhere near the river, near where they had first discovered it. There wasn't really any way for him to carry it around with him - Caravaggio had little grasp on material possessions. They served him no purpose, really, and besides, wearing something like he'd seen some other Gembounds do would greatly devalue his utmost natural beauty. A necklace would take away from the unadulterated and sheer perfection that was the Strong Cow Caravaggio. It was bad enough that the bright purple gem was situated right in the center of his chest and that tended to distract from his handsome chiseled face.

Anyways, he totally digressed. His thought process did. (I did.) He'd been wandering up and down the river looking for something shiny to catch his eye, and occasionally he'd see the crystal White had given him and get excited, only to remember that it was the gift she gave him and not an adequate gift to give back to her. That was called regifting, and while Caravaggio was an asshole, he wasn't so much of an asshole that he'd give her back something she gave him, which was essentially a rejection. He wouldn't do that. No, no, noooo.

When he spotted the gleaming topaz in the river, his heart jumped - and then he saw the moving rocks, the golems, and his heart promptly sank. He may have nearly peed. The sight of them moving like catatonic hospital patients had made him jump, and he charged away, eager to place as much distance between himself and them as possible. In the process, though, he had instead discovered a new Gembound that was doing - oh, what was she doing? What was that noise? Oh - OH GOD - WHY WAS SHE DOING THAT - IT SMELLED SO BAD - NOW SHE WAS LAYING IN IT - WHAT!!! Caravaggio bleated his surprise, frozen as he stared in disbelief at the child. Why.... how.... he couldn't fathom it.

To make things better (or worse) he wasn't the only one to take notice of her. Some creature had emerged and made a beeline for the vomiting dog, seeming unfazed by her disgusting gut-wrenching habit. Caravaggio whimpered quietly, holding his ground as he watched. He was tempted to just run up to the coyote and vault her into the water, but that would require touching, which would run the risk of him coming into contact with her bile, and that was just... no.

she was splayed out like a pancake, if a pancake had legs (the little kind you could make by messily drawing with the batter? y'know?) except her face was tucked under her chest. she had literally fallen on her face. and then stopped. maybe passed out? there were lots of rocks everywhere, so who knows - she may have booped herself too hard - but the sound of thundering steps roused her.

creedence saw the hyena first, having missed the creature's words because they... might have been passed out. the thunder didn't stop until a split second later, when a shadow passed over her little self.

The babe looked up at the face of Lux, seeing her mouth move but being really out of sorts. Then she looked higher - and the creamy body of a giant monster witH HORNS CAME IN TO VIEW. "whAAAH!" With a strangled sound (kind of like a toot, with a hiccup, and a bit of bile-filled spittle spraying from her mouth) she reeled backwards and flailed, falling on to her back and kicking like a turtle with really short legs.

Lux felt a wave of relief when the young pup began to move, looking up at her. She was about to speak again, to try to ask the child what happened, when the pup let out an awful sound and sprayed a few specks of not-so-great-smelling stuff her way. Lux winced and turned her head, balancing her weight into one leg to bring her other paw up, wiping at her face in attempt to clear the bile off herself. All the while, the kid was freaking out and kicking on the ground. "Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you." She said, still too focused on the child to notice the looming form that stood near them, having no idea that the bovine was what spooked the coyote and not her. "You need to breathe. Breathe."

The instant the little coyote tooted out her surprise and fell back, Caravaggio bleated out again. His legs stiffened before he jumped back a step, startled by the coyote being... well, startled. Even without his full size, he was quite a bit larger than the babe and probably a little larger than the hyena - but that didn't mean Caravaggio was necessarily aware of his size. He only backpedaled furiously away from the spittle-and-bile-spraying baby, thankful that he was already at a distance that whatever fluids she emitted wouldn't reach him. Also, the hyena seemed to catch the brunt of it, so that was good. Still scared the hell out of him.

Meanwhile, the hyena was trying to soothe the little pup, but Caravaggio almost liked to believe that she was speaking to him. She wasn't, but it didn't make much of a difference. He held a breath in his chest and stared at them wide-eyed, even peeking out from behind the hyena, standing a good few feet away. And, doing as she said, he sealed his lips and sucked in a breath. Eyes trained on the slobbery dog. Breathe. In and out. God but she's so nasty. Why am I still here?

@Creedence

the pancake focused on the big dogcat thing in front of her, and tried to calm down enough not to start crying hysterically. tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, threatening to overwhelm the flickering flame of her iris. something made a noise behind the hyena - and this briefly distracted cree from the instructions - so her breath hitched, and she began to hyperventilate all over again. but at least the kicking had stopped.

after another few hiccups, her breath was more regular. the pounding of her heart was consistent and intense, but less so than before. ok. good. breathing. that was.. easy enough.

she swallowed some nerves and (still shaking despite her best efforts not to) peeked around Lux; she took one glance at the massive creature behind her and went wide-eyed again, although this time she was calm about it. her attention returned to the hyena as she tried to explain that... well, there was a monster back there.

"M-m, mmm-uh-muh... Mmm.." Her teeth began to chatter, so she paused to try and chill out. After briefly licking her lips (and tasting snot, which dribbled out of her nose), she leaned close to Lux and whispered loudly, "Mon-sta bee... Beehind," as if this discovery meant certain doom.

She continued to focus on the small pup in front of her, feeling pretty good about herself as the child seemed to begin to calm down. But as the girl tried to speak to her, finally, trying to explain... Lux noticed the sound of breathing behind her finally. The fur along her spine and neck rippled upward sharply out of anticipation, tail sticking up as well defensively as she slooooowly turned her head... When her eyes fell on the looming white form, she let out a yelp herself, leaping off the ground and turning around. She nearly snapped her teeth forward, ready to fight whatever it was. But, luckily enough, she realized before she lunged that it was another gembound and not a giant white monster of death. Still, she wasn't too happy. "Hasn't anyone told you about sneaking up on strangers?" She barked as she raised her head, eyes a bit narrowed. "You could have given me a heart attack!" How long had he been there? Lux glanced back at the kid, trying to calm herself down. She'd just spent her time trying to do the same for the pup, and then she went and freaked out herself.

um... uh... language warning....

When the babe startled to mumble something, Caravaggio slowly narrowed his eyes. He dared to incline his head in closer, as if curious to what she was trying to say - those wide ears of his twitched and eagerly drank in her words, struggling to comprehend them. Muh-muh-muh- what the hell did that mean? The cow couldn't help the look of complete distaste that crossed his features. It was more of a confused-and-disturbed kind of expression, really, one that said 'what kind of an idiot are you?', though he knew he shouldn't have been so callous. She was just a child, and he had to remember that when he first emerged from his chrysalis, he couldn't even walk. He needed help from the black lemur and the elk and the plague horse - mostly the plague horse, who threatened to infect him with all kinds of gross deadly diseases by just standing near him.

Mon sta bee- behind- Holy shit! A monster bee?! The cow's eyes bulged as he stepped back and swung his head around, searching for the fabled monster bee. Seriously, where was this bitch? He'd crush it and eat it. Actually that was gross. He'd probably stomp it. Actually that was even worse, what if it stung him? Okay no. He'd look at it, give it a good long stare, and then run away. Let the hyena and the dribbling baby take care of it. That sounded about right. Caravaggio nervously lashed his tail as he searched for the monster bee, only to come to the conclusion that it wasn't there. He had every mind to turn to the child and scold her for telling lies, but when he turned back to them, the hyena had suddenly looked his way.

Then she, too, yelped and fell backwards, joining the child in her puddle of refuse. Of course he was startled by this entire chain of events, and so Caravaggio jumped backwards another step, all nerves on end. "Wha- sneaking up?! I've been here the whole time!" He gasped, incredulous, unbelieving. Did she really not know he was there? He was there, like, literally the whole time, watching, taking her advice even! "You must be deaf." The cow reasoned and snorted, idly scuffing his hoof on the ground.

@Creedence

o...kay....

so now the monster and the dogcat were arguing, or fighting, or something. they were making lots of noise and it was overwhelming and all that creedence wanted was to get far far away -

but her legs wouldn't work. they turned in to spaghetti, knees weak, etc etc.

she was a puddle of parts, eyes wide and jaw dropping - and then, sucking in a breath, she frowned and let out a great big ---

"BURRRRRRRRRP!" it was meant to be a roar to get them to shut the heck up, but, instead an odor most foul came billowing from her throat, followed promptly by creedence averting her head to retch all over again.

at least this time she directed the flow of regurgitation away from her new friends.