Coming here was a mistake, Baja realized too late. The thick mist that first enchanted her when she entered Cetus had trapped her in a dome of obscuring fog. That musty smell she had first gotten a whiff of while exploring Tunnel H was so exciting and new to her, until it became overwhelming and omnipresent. The ground underneath her moved as she did, alternating between damp earth, mud, roots, and puddles of murky water, but am I really getting anywhere? How do I know I'm not just circling around and around?

Baja was terribly lost, and it was starting to make her feel neurotic. She sighed in exasperation and sped up her pace. She barely saw the tree before it was too late, stopping in time just to boop her nose on the bark. She hadn't seen trees before she came to Cetus, but normal appetite for discovery was squashed by a pressing need to get outta here! All she cared to realize right now was that this large, brown thing was tall enough to poke through the top of her bubble in the fog. Maybe I can use this to climb out!

Mexican mole lizards evolved to burrow through the ground, not to climb trees, but Baja had an idea that might give her a shot. She leaned on her belly, against the tree, and stretched herself up off the ground as far as she could go. From there, she could find footholds in the bark and the claw marks in the trunk. Then, possibly, she could try to wriggle herself fast enough and far enough to reach the next foothold.

@Ghanyarah

(im so excited i have an excuse to use my new yara table... :') )

The artificial lights seemed yellower today than they usually were, or maybe the reptile was just tired. There was a lot going on both inside Cetus and out, and Ghanyarah was struggling to wrap his head around it - Eve had left, taking Oliver with her and dwindling their group's numbers by a severe chunk. He didn't know why the bird left and took her son, but considering their numbers weren't that high in the first place, losing two was like losing a good portion of their manpower. Sure, Eve was only a Maw and not a Claw, but a Child of Rot was a Child of Rot and now they had less to show for it. He wanted to ask Dragon why she left, but he hadn't been able to find the alligator lately, that and he was already so busy with his own tasks. Training Nova was fairly draining, leaving him little time to patrol Cetus and catch up on his well deserved sleep, as well as hunt and feed Netil.

But for having so many things on his mind, the reptile was oddly detached. They came and went as facts of life, and Ghanyarah accepted them at face value. When something else cropped up, he dealt with it and moved on, and he didn't dwell on it. Maybe he should have put a little deeper thought into them. Maybe he should have stopped and analyzed them a little more, maybe he should have been more critical, maybe he should have realized that that was what was beginning to bog him down. They were creeping into his mind as he made his way back to the tree, looking forward to another nap, making him wonder - and then he spotted that small, shiny little thing trying to scale his tree, and the thoughts swept away.

The komodo paused where he was standing, still partially hidden by the underbrush, narrowing his eyes as he picked out the mystery creature's pale body from the dark bark of his tree. It looked like a worm at first, causing the lizard to part his jaws in mild confusion, but - worms didn't have legs, they couldn't climb trees. He took another step, and another, and then his pace picked up and suddenly he was making a neurotic beeline for the animal trying to climb his tree. His stomach turned with hunger, predatory instinct wanting to assume it was something to eat. He wouldn't mind a snack before sleep.

He approached swiftly and shoved his massive snout at the tiny reptile, sniffing loudly, close enough to bump her on the back in his rapid investigation. But the thing - it had scales, despite its shiny body. Scales like a fish... or a reptile!!

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN


@Baja

The fog hadn't faded any from Baja's mild ascent, but that didn't deter her none. Getting better visibility was important, yes, but having a clear destination in mind did wonders for her attitude and outlook. She was starting to feel a little bit more cheery, when a large reptilian snout descended upon her from the fog. She hadn't had time to react before Ghanyarah's great snout rammed into her.

Baja commanded herself to run, get away, but her body would not obey. Frozen, she did not dare take a breath until he did; her eyes closing to block out the winds sweeping into his nostrils. Once the air started to scream past her ears, she couldn't withstand it anymore. Everything in her clenched up, and she started to scream too.

"Don't hurt me! Don't eat me! PLEASE!"

The tension, having been forcefully expelled through her lungs, left her momentarily; but she already felt it welling up again inside of her. In the meantime, her body slacked and shivered in wake of her outburst.

@Ghanyarah

He snuffled loudly over top the creature, his eyes wide and curious, almost like a dog - exhales were sharp, warm gusts of air that he would take in over and over again, acclimating to the foreign and subtle earthy smell of the smooth lizard. But it baffled him, it absolutely confounded him - he couldn't make sense of it, because it looked shiny and wriggly like a worm, or even a snake. But snakes weren't reptiles. Not like Dragon and him were. Or wait, were they? He took a brief break from his inquisition, pondering this, only to dismiss it - it wasn't important. He had to know what it was!

Only it seemed, now, the creature had had enough of his intrusion. It suddenly screamed, a sharp, high-pitched female voice that pleaded not to be hurt or eaten. The sound was so jarring that Ghanyarah jumped, his nerves on high. He fumbled back a step and elevated his limbs from the ground, extending much in the same fashion that any alert komodo would do, and squeaked his surprise before zooming in close to the wriggly wormy creature again. "You are a Gembound? An intelligent one, like me?" He pointed out, though his intonation was more questioning than observational. It honestly startled him that the creature had spoken, because she was just so... tiny... and confusing. "What are you?" The reptile blurted, snuffling over her again.

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN


@Baja