On his back, he could hear Barnett and Diot wondering out loud of the identity of the shadowy creature. Ghanyarah's expression turned suspicious, and he found his head dipping slightly as Barnett moved onto his snout, hanging off of it as he posed his curiosity. Sure enough, the melded shadows seemed to be fiddling with the stone door, which Ghanyarah now had difficulty discerning thanks to the numbat that was blocking his face. In that moment, he felt another warm body brush up behind him. He thought that it might be the bear or his daughter, or maybe even Arkrael, but Arkrael had come up to stand next to them, taking the helm of the group. Unable to identify who it was behind him, Ghanyarah swung his head, momentarily forgetting that Barnett was hanging off his snout. The momentum of the movement risked tossing the numbat right off his head.

Behind him, he spotted an unfamiliar face, though the creature looked pretty young - canine, it seemed, like something he'd hunt down and eat. Ghanyarah chuffed at the dingo before turning his attention back to the shadow, who had started to speak, explaining the strange mechanism before them. It was a door... that much was obvious. It led to a water place, and his heart skipped a beat. But they needed to keep the door open... his own thoughts had jumped to just destroying the door with his ice, but Totum added that they couldn't. They would have to find another way. "It opens with the surges?" He asked, just for clarification - his slow, reptilian brain struggled to keep up with the shadow's technical explanation.

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN

As the great bear pulled himself from the swirling surge, Azazel dried himself off sufficiently to glide over to the shore and find himself perched upon solid ground once again. The Bone King took this opportunity to finish drying himself off. It left him a very puffy and fluffy-looking bird, but that was alright, for now. He hurriedly attempted to flatten his feathers, but they were dead set on being very fluffy. With carmine feathers sticking out every which way and eyes already dulled and tired, he glared at the great door before them. And before that door...

Oh. Them.

It had been many cycles since he last saw the shadowy beast, and since the monstrous shadow of Canis had been chased off... he had his suspicions toward Totum. They must hold ill will against the Gembound of the caves for attacking them. His alveolate lungs flared as they absorbed the fresh—actually, stagnant and old—air and oxygen. Carmine eyes turned towards the massive beast and he clacked his beak. It spoke, two voices combined into a united song. Opening the door? More surges? Azazel flapped his wings as he pondered. Already, quite a bit of water had surged out of this very door, right? If they opened it, it could flood Tunnel M and its connecting caves Orion and Pisces. That certainly would not be good. "How do we know this isn't another one of your tricks, shadow? Was it you that cast Canis into darkness?" The Bone King narrowed his eyes and stood defensively, lest he be assaulted.

(mads y u always shamin' me i just asked a question jeebus heebus)

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos' took a step in front of Aza'zel, eyes splitting between Totum, the others, and his own leader. "Different creature. Totum did not plunge us into darkness. They are two, now one, who fought... Fought with Jupiter." He didn't know how to explain it.

"I don't think they're bad. But I don't know. They are trying to help the caves now, and that is what matters." He was more than willing to admit he didn't trust Totum, but in that same vein, he was frightened of both the conjoined shadow and the centaur.

"I can protect the others from the water. I can stand in the way... Push some water back, so it doesn't hit all at once... Will this help?" Kerberos offered, his tail swaying as he took a careful step towards the door.

i'm ready to start
the conquest of spaces

After dealing with the first portion of the tunnel Sabor was eager to know what was just beyond! Though instead of a small dungeon filled with assorted treasures and jewels, he came across gembounds. A lot of gembounds. He hadn't seen so many individuals all at once! Let alone in his whole life one on one! Swallowing hard this was no time for Sabor to get shy or even worried! Just treat everyone with no attitude, all would go fine. It ould also help that Tolani was with him. He would have to stay strong for her! He was a protector after all. Not to mention it was his idea to explore this in the first place...

Keeping her just behind and somewhat under his form as he approached he made out something new. It seemed to be a dead end; with something, shadowy ahead everyone else.

It wasn't until 'Totum' spoke that Sabor really thought about heading back to Eridanus. But they had made it this far; so the end must be close in sight?

@Tolani

A few others had joined the group at the end of the tunnel, which wasn't surprising; with a brand new hole blasted into the side of the tunnel, he imagined many of the Gembounds who regularly traversed this path would be curious. Leon kept a close eye on those coming up from behind, watching them as Aza'zel soared off to land on dry ground again, though the bird might be better off remaining perched on his other shoulder with Cadence. His round ears twisted back while his daughter curiously posed her own question, and Leon too had found himself wondering what exactly this was. But he kept silent and he listened to Totum's explanation, nodding slowly. It all made sense - the water had to come from somewhere, and it had to go somewhere, since there was a current to every stream and even the lagoons in Pisces. It all drained somewhere, even if it was just saturating the rock. Was this where the water came from?

Aza'zel expressed his concerns, but Kerberos was quick to correct them, speaking of a creature that had plunged Canis into darkness - that Leon had heard of, but knew very little about - and a suggestion about keeping the water at bay, or protecting the Gembounds behind them. The idea was a good one, but Leon didn't know how successful it would be. The surges seemed to lose momentum the further from the end of the tunnel they went, so rushing straight from the door at point blank range... it might be too strong for even Kerberos. He thought to express this concern, but said nothing, waiting for Totum's answer.

Totum patiently waited as the Gembounds seemed to absorb this information, their shadows rippling and jumping like static across their dark, intangible surface. There was a small nod towards the komodo who clarified what they had said, and then a curious look towards the big bird, who they recognized - he had come during the fight with Jupiter, and Totum knew that there was a misgiving between them. Especially at the accusation they threw at Totum, who merely cocked its head to the side. The vivid violet of the female sizzled as though a growl bubbled from its shadowy depths, until Kerberos had answered, distinguishing Totum from the shadow that had terrorized Canis.

Totum had not known of the shadow. Perhaps this was something they would need to look into... or pursue. They turned their eyes to Kerberos. "The water may be too powerful." Twin voices spoke in hesitant response. "You will all need to brace for the surges as they come. But we must act quickly..." The shadow raised a hand to its face in thought, green eyes flickered back to the door and its strange mechanism while purple eyes fixed on the Gembounds.

@Kerberos @Booker @Diot @Cadence @Arkrael @Jack @Eve @Sabor @Azazel

Audits twitched, listened as others spoke to Totum. Listened as Totum responded to them all. She took this moment to sit near Ghanyarah and study the door when Totum moved away to allow everyone one to see. A frown marred over her features as she contemplated quietly. So the door opens during water surges, according to Ghan's thoughts of it and Totums nod of confirmation. For now she was unsure about it and turned her gaze to the many other gembounds, curious to see if they had any kind of idea of what could possibly begin to release the door slowly like Totum was wanting. She would prepare herself for another surge should it come soon, but for now she waited silently. speech table code © rasta 2015

Young Gadanai approached, walking along in no hurry. She sprayed water over herself a final time before reaching the group, then began idling playing with her own tusks with her ever-busy trunk. Her bright red eyes took in all the others who were present. For once, she decided to tone down her behavior for the sake of whatever was happening here. Carefully and slowly, Gadana Ama wander through the crowd, seeing all the faces and hearing all the voices. She wandered back to the water, filled her trunk, then wandered back to the door, looking at it curiously.

Doing something had to be better than just talking about what to do.

She peered down at the siphon curiously, then released her trunk-full of water into it, wondering if it would do anything interesting. Even just disappearing behind the door would be enough to sate her simple and new mind.

While the majority of the Gembounds fell silent in thought, Totum observed a newcomer approach from the tunnel, quietly shifting their eyes with each strange movement of the elephant. As water rushed into the siphon, the door quaked and began to lower, sloshing water over the edge, but once the stream ended the door groaned and rose up again. Wide-eyed, Totum adopted a thoughtful look and peered out to the rest of the group again.

@Kerberos @Booker @Diot @Cadence @Arkrael @Jack @Eve @Sabor @Azazel

For a moment Arkrael was at a loss. She had rose to her paws and paced a moment, looking from the door, to Totum, to the other gembounds, and then back again. It wasn't until a newcomer came through. One that looked to be young. Quietly she watched the elephant until it had sprayed water into a siphon. When she saw Totum perk up into attention Arkrael turned her gaze to the door once more. Audits jumped up into attention before she swung back around to the elephant with an idea. "Hey. can you do that again? She asked as she slowly padded over to the creature. speech @Gadanai table code © rasta 2015