It was quite a weary time for such a lonely bird, but regardless, a distraction managed to take all his worries away. Fish that resembled tiny minnows were trapped in a pond that Kawenu had wandered into. With bountiful curiosity, he watched, chased, and nibbled at them, finding the taste to be extraordinary. This, of course, led to the young mallard to hunt them, following them and dunking his head under to snag stragglers. Time passed - perhaps a couple of hours - and Kawenu found himself to be quite full of fish and thoughts. He floated about, occasionally pushing himself into a new direction as his eyes stared into the water without much life behind them. His reflection wasn't much to look at; patches of iridescent, white, and brown feathering. Not to mention the ugly state of the pinfeathers that were all over. Such an image made him sigh, then look around briefly. Nope... still alone. Alone forever. Lonely. No one who cares. No one to love... Such depressing thoughts rolled about in his mind and plagued his lonely heart. He was too young to know a thing about love and too inexperienced to have an idea what it meant, but he craved it none-the-less. More than anything, though, he needed friends. Company. Gembounds who could express a gentler side of life. ---- "He talks with quite the gusto." He thinks too much. OOC: words Tag: @

BAROQUE SONGCAT

"Aaaand here's Pisces! See the big waterfall? That's where we're going. My family and I live here, along those caves by the wall down there. You could probably find an empty spot to stay too, if you want. If you want to join, I can let my dad know, and he can make it all official."

The boy wasn't usually so talkative. Especially without his other half, Thistle. Perhaps he was finally growing into himself.

Baroque bounced across Pisces, his tail held high above him as he led Bartos and Percy back to his home. Immediately, the growing cub wanted to bring the water-seeking gembound to the lagoon, so that's where he went.

Little did he know there would already be a gembound waiting there. One he had never seen before! With a big, bearish grin, the growing gembound let out a greeting that might have sounded a bit too much like a roar.

"Hey there!! I'm Baroque! I've never seen you around here before!"

Perseus gambolled in behind Baroque, glee evident on his young features at the enticing scent of the lagoon. But at the sheer volume, the sight of the water, he stopped dead and enraptured.

"Baro..." he tailed off, lost for words. Little did he know the impact the accidental nickname might have on Baroque.

"Can I really stay and live with you?

Chocolate brown eyes, veiled in longing to live in the cleaning place. So different to the comparatively gruesome, cramped chrysalis. There was still a shard wrapped around his leg - he'd kick it off later.

There was just one problem. "Um, Baroque?"

The cat followed behind the two, listening to them - he too had noticed Baroque's unusual talkativeness, compared to Bartos own unusual silence. As a child, Bartos had been a chatty, sociable creature, when he wanted to. In the right mood, he could have talked anybody's ear off if it was about rocks or dust or boulders or the beautiful starry sky in Orion. Even after he had made his discovery and built his telescope, still sadly abandoned in the tower in Orion, Bartos would have been able to hold a conversation about the constellations and probably talked somebody to death. But after what happened with Hasira, after the stag had broken his leg and broken his wife, leaving her a demonic shell of herself, he found himself strangely lacking in words. There wasn't anything for him to say. He lacked the passion, because he didn't have the time or the means to continue building. He didn't have access to his telescope. He couldn't see the starry sky, and his leg hurt too much for him to do too much strenuous activity.

There just wasn't anything for him to talk about.

Unless it came to stories, but even then, Bartos' stories paled in comparison to what Clover could do. His own were reserved for Wisteria and Hawthorne. His brow furrowed slightly in thought, considering calling them over once they had reached Pisces. He followed them to the lagoon, where Baroque introduced the room and offered Perseus to live there, and then greeted another Gembound floating along in the water - a duck. Meanwhile, Perseus was asking to live there, and Bartos limped up to the edge of the lagoon, lowering his head to take a drink from the water.

He couldn't help his curiosity, watching the duck through dark blue eyes. He'd never seen the bird before. A few mouthfuls of water later, the cat raised his head and settled down into a crouch, broken leg twisted out, tail flicking idly.

@Kawenu