The buzzing did not cease while the creatures made their search, remaining a constant hum, a perpetual irritant, that seemed to be unhindered by the fog. The fisher went one way, and the feline another - but in each case, when their attention drifted to the water, the buzzing seemed to lull. Not entirely stop, but lull.

It was Fallah's interest in the water that made the sound come to an abrupt end; as she sought to drink from the pond, the silence rose up to overwhelm. Should she have lingered for but a moment longer, the ominous darkness that rose within the water's depths may have proved to be fatal. But instead, as she pulled away, so too did the darkness - leaving the creatures to the empty corridor.

The Strangeness of Cetus: Part 1 has been completed!

Upon further inspection of the lake, there appears to be something wrong with the water. It no longer sits within the lake as a stagnant mirror, but rather... Seems to be whirling at the very center.

The gathering was slowly becoming a party by the looks of things. Before Remy's questions were answered another soul came bounding through the fog. It was surprising to the small feline, enough that it made her jump slightly as the large creature came thundering through. It was the biggest gembound she had ever seen. Remy had not meet too many others and most where her size, or close too it. This creature was just miles of legs. "Whoa..." She breathed for a second as her eyes scanned over the creature. It appeared that Fisher knew this individual, and by that logic, they must have been a friend.

"Hi Ecthelon. You's really tall." She beamed before she gave another strange open mouth smile. After a moment of her gaping she finally found some manners. "I'm Remy!" She added and then turned back to Fisher. He caught on to her idea. Though, she wasn't exactly sure how she knew the name of this 'game', it just came out, it sounded right. After all, whatever the buzzing was, was kinda hiding and they wanted to find it. She laughed at his remarks about the bird and shook her head. "That's mean." But she kept laughing, finding that she strangely shared the thought of the feathered creature being food.

There was zero time for her to respond to Fisher's idea about splitting up, he was already moving off and starting to look for things. She blinked a few times as she watched him vanish into the fog. He was effectively swallowed by the surroundings. Hopefully no one got lost. "Okay, stay close guys! She nodded as she turned from the long-legged creature and moved off perpendicular to the direction that Fisher had picked. She nosed around in the fog, looking for any secret places that something might be hiding in. It was hard to pick a direction though, the humming seemed to be coming from everywhere, no where seemed to be any stronger than the last.

Edit due to Game Master Post

Suddenly it all seemed to stop and she wasn't sure why. It did not appear to be any thing that she did. Her head lifted from the brush and she looked around. Nothing stood out to her right away. It was not until she looked down and saw that the water itself had changed. "Guys! Look!" She called out as she darted back towards the bush. "What's wrong with it!" She was nervous, her heart began to thud quickly. Should they leave? Was this safe? She had not noticed the lynx nearby, nor had she seen what the lynx had done to stop the humming. All Remy knew was that there was a drastic change, a silence fell over the group like a heavy hand, pressing down with all its unholy weight.

Fisher's whole body prickled as the hum faded. Worried, the little mustelid started to hum himself, as if trying to encourage the buzz to come back. In response, as he sat near his marshy puddle, looking around the whole place became still and silent. He could hear his heart picking up and, in the deafening silence he could hear nothing but the pounding drum of his blood.

There was absolutely no way he was going to stay away from the others now, not until he knew it was safe. Letting out a yelp, the strip of dark fur raced back for the bush. "What happened! Who found something! Anyone?!" His paws did not lead him back to the bush with the bird, but instead away from the others down the edge of the lake in the center, because despite being a fantastic, perfect Fisher (in his own opinion) he had the worst sense of direction. He watched the water swirl and felt much too dizzy and hungry. He wished he had eaten the Food while he had the chance, because he was sure he was lost.

"Remy! Etchy!" He cried, his voice quivering in a way that truly embarrassed him. He wanted nothing more than to see someone else and know he wasn't horribly lost, but he knew he was being... Weak? A coward and a baby. Okay, he was a baby, but that was no excuse! Frowning, he looked around one last, desperate time for the others, and then tried his best to slow his heart again. The pounding of his ears from the silence of the hum made him even more frightened. He couldn't hear anything over the fear that had taken hold as soon as the humming stopped.

Fisher avoided looking at the swirl of water, too. It made him feel dizzy and sick, like he would be pulled in too. He jammed his eyelids shut and focused as hard as he could on calming his heart down-- something that could have been quite dangerous to do yet again, but what did he know about Magicks?

Post-Roll: ... His heart did not slow down. In fact, it sped up, and if he felt dizzy before, he felt extra dizzy now and, oh dear. He was truly panicking now, being all alone in the fog. His chest started to hurt and he wasn't breathing right at all, and, with his heart being too fast for blood to fill the chambers properly, the poor little mustelid felt his paws come out from under him, and then his vision went black as he plopped down in the mud, dangerously close to the edge of the swirling lake.

it seemed to have worked -- grey sense had reached into the dampness of cetus and drew back into him a sense of knowing. like fingers passing through earth, rooting. he knew them to be there, to be of help. like an extension of him.

it invited a warmth, a comfort to his nerves. but, as he busied himself with this new sensation the world around him altered quickly. their words were flung back and forth, and ecthelon kept his stolid attention on the little strange-differents, and with his own attempts at keeping things straight -- and what exactly those sounds leaving their mouths meant. smiles, they seemed innocent enough. it softened the natural ferocity of the sharpened teeth and the strange different musk their types seemed to carry. he'd manage something of a smile himself, rocking his weight, shifting out of uncertainty. all with good reason, it seemed. their party was on the move! of course, he had not been watching: had not caught the darkness whirl beneath the pool. only the buzzing, the purr from deep within the cave.

guys, look! and only then, did he turn to see, eyes following the rest of them.

without even realizing, their explorations had triggered a chain of events wildly out of their control. the buzzing... where was the buzzing? remy's word, hung within his mind. and spying fisher's figure so close to the end, he'd parrot it so to draw the attention of the rest of their party. "wrong!" he was younger than they, still grasping at straws when joining the sounds, in working his mouth. too self-conscious to truly make the broad attempts like they, it seemed only appropriate this was his moment to try. his hoof lifted and clattered at the ground, ensuring their attention would go where he willed it. "look! remy!" as the drawl ended, leaving his lips in a child's tremor, he'd advanced.

on his unsure legs, and youthful lack of elegance, he'd attempt to fisher's rescue: all while trying to avoid stomping on anyone else who'd shared this idea.

finally, that naturally imbued bravery had seemed to catch. the embers aglow in that mighty heart of his. valiance blossoming, albeit not yet as graceful as he'd like. his forelimbs splayed, allowing his reach to inch closer to the collapsed friend(?) in the mud, making an attempt to grasp the scrufftailanything that he could.

The fledgeling looked apprehensively at the dark-colored gembound. They were obviously food to this thing, and that wasn’t particularly pleasant. But it seemed like it wasn’t going to hurt them, so the jackdaw found a better perch and gave a short twitter of greeting. The hum wasn’t only bothersome to them with the way it resonated cold in their hollow bones, then. It really was that eerie. It was like if the mist itself had a sound, cold and wet and an awful lot of other things that sound just shouldn’t be. The odd feeling coated the place.

Another voice came from the mist, sweet and singsong. The bird mimicked in their baby twitter, “Helloooo!” The other’s were talking about them…and Fisher, that was his name, called them Food! The bird gave a sharp squawk and a glare in response. “The noise, I do too wanna find it!” The jackdaw hopped down, brandishing their name-flower. “I’m…my name is whatever this 's. I should know but I don’t!” They looked helplessly at the newcomer, then tilted their head sharply at the other gem bound coming through the mist.

It was a something…a…horse? Why did the jackdaw know things like that but not their own proper name? In any case Ecthelon was another gembound willing to help with the search, which was fairly important. The bird looked around, unable to figure out which direction the noise was coming from. Unable to fly yet, they couldn’t be much help. They hopped around, trying to just keep an eye on everyone else as they headed off, and ended up tagging along absentmindedly a ways behind Fisher.

Oh, oh! Fisher! They could see him on the bank, looking panicked and exhausted, and…collapsing… He had thought the jackdaw was food, yes, but the bird had to do something! Not that they could, really, but they could flutter-hop over as quickly as possible, around Ecthelon, to perch delicately on the furry body and peep.

ooc; oh my gosh guys i had to go back and add stuff like five times because more posts just kept appearing

As Fallah went to drink, it would find a darkness swirling in the water. Drawing back, the lynx looked towards the others with icy blue eyes wide. It didn't say a word, it wasn't used to speaking just yet and didn't feel like it was needed. Before anything else happened, though, the other had collapsed! Everyone seemed to scramble as if to help, but was anything really happening? Wide eyes observed the collapsed form, then back to the water. Fallah's heart pounded... What was this exactly? The others were saying words, but the lynx couldn't take its eyes off the water. There was something wrong with it. It wasn't right. Maybe if Fallah had more experience with the water element, it would have helped, but for now the cat settled with peering into the darkness with squinted eyes. Cautiously, it reached a paw forward to tap the surface of the water, body crouching instinctively for balance. Crystal eyes wide and dialated... steady... steady... After Roll: As Fallah reached forward, its balance slipped, sending the young cat reeling to avoid falling in the water. It landed squarely on its butt with a thud, its eyes even wider as it stared, stunned at whatever just happened. This whole balance thing was hard and maybe Fallah would have to try again later, but for now there was no way it could touch the water and not fall in. "speak"

The world was sideways. That didn't make much sense, but the young kit was hardly aware of anything as his conscious started to come back as his magick wore off. There was something on him, a gentle weight of a feathery body, which he hardly noticed. He wasn't sure where he was, or what had happened, but as his little paws tried to find the earth they splashed in muddy water and-- gosh, it was cold.

Whining, the mustelid struggled up and flopped away from the edge of the water, rolling on to his back only to see the creatures nearby spin into his vision. The world was rolling, with the mist fogging and twisting around his vision.

There was... The tall, Tam-like creature... Uh... Itchy? Etch? They were calling or Remy... And, oh, Food! The grey bird was there, and chirping now. "Food," he mumbled, vaguely remembering how Tam had said you shouldn't eat other animals just in that moment. "No.. Not food... What happened?" There was another creature that he didn't recognize, also not far off, but he was still trying to come back to reality.

Fisher remembered the water, spiraling. It was going some where-- but where? Suddenly, the small creature wanted to find out where it had went, and quickly. He tried to get to his paws again, slipping just a little, but he managed to do it with only a slight wobble.

"The BZZZ is gone! Where water go? Find it... Hide and Seek!"

many things seemed to be happening at once, the voices were collecting and the colt knew very little of what to do. it seemed fisher had survived whatever episode that was, and was now encouraging the group to a game. ecthelon felt his face squinch in thought. "down," he'd remark, eyes lifting from fisher to the churning waters. his mind fettered by the mystery. as the water whirled, the gyre widening and threatening to swallow all, he seemed to get it. understand. his head tilted, and he stepped forward and over fisher to examine what exactly had occurred.

much like everything that had happened in his short time in the cave, it was strange. these creatures were strange, small. there was something telling him at the back of his mind to assume these things, but his stolid little mind seemed to settle on okay, this might be normal. he'd knit his brow in thought, dipping his head between his gangly legs to peer at the small gembound, fisher. "let's go?" he'd ask, eager to start on this new leg of their journey. find the sound, follow the water? he'd turn from the group, unsure where to go. but he thought if he'd listen hard enough his feet would find the way. (exit)

The itchy horse commented that the water must be going down, down, down. Fisher wondered where and how they would get to the down, but he seemed to agree that they should get searching. The brown mustelid nodded at the large, sturdy animal, and raced past him to find an exit to this place. Eventually, if he looked hard enough, he would find where the buzz had gone.

What Fisher didn't know at the time, was that fate would take him far, far away from his search. It would not be a long time until the noodle found his favorite buzzing noise, and where the water had gone. He might even forget about it, for a long while. But for now, Fisher didn't worry about any of that. He left the group, with hardly so much as a bye. He thought they would follow, that they would keep up, but the mist had a way of separating the gembounds.

Maybe someday he would see these animals again. Maybe he never would again.

;; fisher exit