((ooc: this thread name has probably been used a billion times and I DON'T CARE, BOB ROSS 5EVER))

The alligator was perched atop a log--or, perhaps "sprawled heavily" would better describe the way his bulk was slowly compressing and splintering the wet and rotten wood.

He was just outside the "garden" that Tal'at and Czernobog had created in his absence; it grew thick and tangled, plenty of herbs and strange exotic foods from other caves twisting up in the dark patch of soil. He didn't eat the stuff, but he had to admit it had an attractive scent: this plant smelled like rotting flesh, that one like sweet blood.

Strange.

Anyway, the alcove behind it was what interested him. Before leaving Cetus to fight Raheerah, Dragon had been intent on creating a map for the other Gembound to reference. Ghanyarah had been the one who seemed to have the most knowledge of the cave as a whole (aside from maybe Tal'at, but well, he was blind), so it was Ghanyarah he had brought here.

"So then--yes, there--where the stone curves in, where it makes that--... ...Curve..."

He huffed a little, annoyed at repeating himself, but how else did one describe a curve in the rock?!

"High enough that the water will not damage it, and so the little creatures cannot scratch it away, but low enough that our smaller ones can see it, if you can. I am curious as to what it will look like."

The alligator settled a little more, his thick ridged tail seeming to be almost a vertical extention of the huge log, its broad "spines" jutting into the misty air. He eyed his brother, hoping he wasn't imposing on him too much--he HAD asked Ghanyarah only to come in his free time, but still, it would be a difficult task, or so he'd imagined.

Then again, the alligator had never carved a map, before.

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@Ghanyarah

In all honesty, Ghanyarah had been more than happy to volunteer his time to making Dragon's map. They had been planning it for a while, but lost sight of their goals when word of Raheerah's terror had reached them. They had forgotten about their plans in the wake of imminent threat, and had prepared themselves for battle. Then they went to Polaris and they fought; Ghanyarah had hurt, Dragon had hurt, everybody had. Plans for the map had fallen to the wayside. They left Dragon there to recover, and while Talat and Czernobog had gotten the chance to resume their plans, Ghanyarah was left indecisive over whether or not to pursue the command without Dragon. In the end, he had left it; surely, his alligator brother would rather he be there for the creation of their map.

So here they were now, before the great slab of rock just behind the garden. Ghanyarah had never considered it a canvas until now, as they stood before it and Dragon explained where to place the map. The komodo nodded, gaze rolling over the texture of the stone. Thankfully it was fairly even and flat - sure, it was a little wavy, but they were more like gentle rolling hills than jagged bumps and that would be easy enough to carve into. "Okay. Let's start with Cetus." Ghanyarah moved closer to the wall, extending his legs to stand as tall as he could and raising one clawed hand to the rock. He began to scratch in a rough circle representing the marshy room, scraping a single claw against the rock until it revealed shallow, pale imperfections. Then, he drew another rough circle near the center - the Heart, the swamp where Aquarian lived - and a few lines stuck together to resemble the Divine. "How is this?" He asked, stepping aside to give Dragon a better look.

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Dragon watched his brother work with interest, though when he stepped away, all he could do for a moment was stare.

Okay, he got that Cetus was roughly circular; and sure, the Heart was a big, round swamp in the middle. But what the hell was that "T" thing?

He stared for a bit, tilting his head, trying to pretend that he was admiring it. But... really, how did he admit that he didn't know what it was? He didn't want to embarrass himself, or for that matter, Ghanyarah. He couldn't laugh at it. He didn't want to hurt his brother.

But what if the lizard was playing a joke on him? What if he was testing Dragon's honesty? Thinking fast, Dragon tried to put his own mind to mapping Cetus. What was in here, even, of note--what was worth mapping out...? There was the swamp, the... well, that was it... The forest, the crags. The tree!

IT WAS THE TREE!

Dragon gave a little rumbling cough to hide his sudden realization. Carefully, he spoke.

"Good... That is the swamp, yes? And the tree? Can you mark where the ridges are, the ledges where the spiders live, somehow? Or is that too hard?"

He didn't want to ask him to make the tree pointier, but he was afraid that nobody would recognize it otherwise.

"And can the tree be a little... pointier? Like the other trees? I mean, I can tell what it is, but maybe everyone wouldn't realize straightaway."

The alligator kept his eyes on the cave, as if imagining the rest of the map taking shape. He didn't dare make eye contact, and he kept his voice entirely full of admiration, despite his questions.

Nope, he'd definitely recognized the Divine.

Totally.

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@Ghanyarah

He waited with anticipation for the first of what was sure to be many of the alligator's opinions on the map. There was a prolonged silence between them, and then Dragon acknowledged the landmarks he had managed to draw on the map so far. The swamp and the tree, yes - the ridges? Ghanyarah furrowed his brow and cast a look around the swampy room. Right, the crags - oh. Those were in the far end of the room, weren't they? Right where the tree was. That was okay, Ghanyarah could fix it. "Of course." The reptile nodded and focused back on the map, trailing his claw across the rock and etching more details into the map. When he was done, he stepped back and cast another waiting glance towards Dragon.

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Dragon growled, a brief bout of rumbling pleasure at the new Cetus that Ghanyarah had perfected.

"Yessss," he practically hissed, "that is good. We will have the greatest map of any, brother."

Of course, he didn't know if there were any other maps, but hey. There was no point in retracting part of his compliment with pointless clarification.

He shifted a little where he lay, to make his damaged leg a little more comfortable. It ached in the damp, and he hated that--and it was always damp in Cetus.

"There is only one exit, yes? And what lies beyond? ...How many caves are there?"

He tried to count them in his mind, but he was only aware of a grand total of three: Cetus, Eridanus, and Polaris. At least, that's all he could remember--those, and the tunnels between them. He thought he'd heard mention of some place called Pisces, but he couldn't remember having actually ever seen it. Hmm.

He began to worry that maybe he was asking too much of his brother.

"If it is too much, we can do it in parts, day by day...?" Why was he even saying "we?" He was making Ghanyarah do all the work!

"I wish I could help, but it would come out as mere clawmarks," he added, trying to amend it.

Usually, he didn't care how others felt. If they got upset, they were probably weak. He wasn't generally deliberately cruel, either, but for his brother, he had a soft spot.

He didn't want to hurt Ghanyarah's feelings, or to tax him too much. He looked up, eyeing the single cave done so far. Even if it was hard, he was sure they could get a few caves done today...

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@Ghanyarah

Ghanyarah grinned at his brother's approval and turned his eyes back to the map. He nodded at the alligator's words - only one exit, and Ghanyarah tried to remember from which direction it branched off. He stared at it momentarily, thoughtful, before Dragon expressed his concerns. The komodo chittered out a reptilian laugh and turned back to him, grinning ever wider. "You underestimate me." He challenged and edged closer to the wall again, placing one clawed hand on the rock. Pressing his weight against the surface, he tried to raise himself up further, to have a wider range of motion as he worked on the map. If Dragon thought that Ghanyarah was going to put this off any longer, then he was sorely mistaken - this map had waited long enough, and Ghanyarah was dying to flex his art muscles!

Now, that tunnel. Where was it again? He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the circle that was Cetus. His free claw hovered over the map, then decided where he would draw the tunnel. Ghanyarah began to scratch away, trailing a line away from Cetus, and then two more branching away to make the tunnels he had seen in passing - one to Pisces, and the other to Eridanus. Then, at the end of the Eridanus tunnel, he started to carve in another circle. This was the other jungle room that he had visited enough times, though its specific details he didn't know. He could vaguely remember where the Eyes were.

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This time, Ghanyarah was drawing something that looked vaguely like an egg sac. Dragon didn't feel so bad asking what it was; as he did so, he hauled himself down from the rotting log. His brother seemed intent on doing it all now, but Dragon could see he was having to stretch to reach, so he slowly hauled himself through the muck and to his brother's side.

"What is that one?" he asked curiously. At the same time he dipped his head, trying to nudge his way under Ghanyarah's clawed feet. Then he elevatored himself up, trying to provide a platform to stand on.

"Here, let me give you a lift."

He rumbled curiously, peering up at the new cave, wondering which it was.

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@Ghanyarah

As Dragon reached his side, Ghanyarah glanced over at him and chortled. "This one is Eridanus. The jungle room. It is filled with trees, and the Eyes, and the mushroom that they call the All Mother. Remember?" He had told the alligator once about his finds in Eridanus, and his encounter with the cats that revered the mushroom. They spewed a bunch of bullshit about the mushroom that made the komodo laugh - in retrospect, he considered the whole affair rather intriguing and wondered how well it would tie into Dragon's desire for immortality. Perhaps the All Mother would have the answers - at least, one or two of them. But that was a quest for another day.

He shifted and hugged the wall as Dragon wedged himself underneath, and Ghanyarah snickered, wobbling until they had righted themselves together. "Thanks." His attention returned to the map, and Ghanyarah fell silent with thought. Now what was he going to draw next? He knew that there was another room attached to the other part of the tunnel, and there was Polaris at the end of the main tunnel. He hesitated, then decided to take a stab at drawing out what he thought the other room would look like. Pisces, they called it.

The lizard scratched away until he had a circle that was round enough, albeit a little wobbly, and snirked. Alright, well it was no flawless heavenly sphere, but whatever. He was about to add the details, before he realized he had never visited Pisces before. He had no idea what was there. In fact, the only other rooms Ghanyarah visited were Polaris and Canis, the home of the Bonebound that he had tried to harass that one time. Alright... maybe they would have to do some exploring after this. "This is... Pisces, right?" He tapped the circle with his claw and looked back down at Dragon for confirmation.

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Dragon watched, peering, as Ghanyarah explained the map.

"Ahh. That damn place with the pools that tried to eat me," he growled. The memory flashed through his mind: the cold, the dark, faces flitting past, an icy warning to turn back now.

He pushed the thought away with a guttural hiss, peering up past Ghanyarah at the map. His brother was already scratching a new circle, another cave, in a direction that Dragon couldn't remember ever having taken. Then he was asking him questions, and the alligator peered up.

Pisces...?

"Pisces? I don't know. I've never been that way," he admitted. "See, this is why you are the map-maker, brother! I have hardly been out of the swamp."

And he'd never really had a need to, outside of the fight with Raheerah. The swamp had everything he needed: fish, water, darkness, mist. Only now it made his leg ache, and the memory made him briefly seethe with anger.

He wanted to find Raheerah, rip his wings off, a--... Oh, but Ghanyarah was still listening to him. Dragon blinked away the thought, and forced a pleasant voice.

"Maybe we can find someone else who knows?"

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@Ghanyarah

"That's right." Ghanyarah answered absent mindedly as his brother recalled his run-in with death. He vaguely remembered that story, too, though most of its details were lost on him. Dragon had gone to the Eyes, he swam in the water, something bad had happened, he nearly died. But Dragon was still alive, and in Ghanyarah's eyes, it was a learning experience. It also meant that there was something fishy going on with the Eyes that Ghanyarah was intent on figuring out. Maybe it really would hold some answers to immortality. Anyways, he tapped the wall again and glanced back down at the alligator, chuffed. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but Polaris is as far as I've gone." He admitted. "Except for Canis."

Finding someone who knew was a good suggestion. Or... they could always just go explore themselves. Wouldn't that be fun? Would Dragon be able to travel that far on his bum leg? "Polaris time." Ghanyarah said suddenly breaking away from his thoughts. Okay, how was he gonna draw this?

The komodo dragon stared. He stared for a good, long time, trying to remember every tiny detail of Polaris. Polaris was one of the most important rooms - it was the Core of the entire cave system, and where he had hatched, too. It was all starting to come back to him. The glowing blue crystals, the wide expanse that made the air look like it shimmered cerulean, the winding river that he remembered rushing next to him. He had abandoned his morganite chrysalis. The spire - yes, the spire was the most important piece. It was the coup de grace. Or something like that. The centerpiece? That was the thing that went on tables, wasn't it? Whatever. Okay. Time to do this.

He started scratching away at it, taking his sweet ass time scratching the outline of the room into the stone. Then, he started with the spire. He sketched it out lightly first, and then gradually deepened the marks until it provided a base upon which he could etch in the details of the spire. Each facet he drew carefully, along with the smaller crystals that branched out from it. And then, atop the spire, he drew what he remembered of Raheerah. Only after he had finished drawing Raheerah, he realized that his groupmates might not appreciate the drawing of the big evil dragon on the spire. Err... okay. Scratch that. It was Dragon.

He added a few finishing touches, some shading here and there, some lovely crosshatching, and then finally leaned back and kissed his claw. "Moi! Beautiful! My masterpiece is complete." Ghanyarah hummed and gestured to Raheerah. "That's you." He glanced down at Dragon.

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